


The Brass Chronicles 2: Hacked

by 123leyang321



Series: The Brass Chronicles (Trilogy) [2]
Category: Medabots
Genre: Action, Ancients, Backstory, Best Friends, Bonding, Canon Backstory, Canon Continuation, Character Death, Dictator, Drama, Duelling, Fights, Friendship, Fun, Gen, Graphic Description, Hacking, Love, Mind Control, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Robots, Saving the World, Ship Tease, Tournaments, War, indoctrination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-18 01:09:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13671120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/123leyang321/pseuds/123leyang321
Summary: After her new upgrades, Brass became interested in robattles like Metabee. But when her abilities seem to not be enough to make her a worthy fighter, she seeks help from an unknown source, and that ends up being one of the worst mistakes she has ever made. Will she be able to fix all the trouble she caused?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by m345julian from DeviantART.

Metabee and Brass ran in a corridor on fire, dodging the falling cracked pieces of the ceiling, with Ikki and Erika right behind them. Suddenly, the ground gave up in front of the group.

"What do we do now?" - the girl asked. They didn't have much time.

"We'll keep going to the control room. You two better get out of here before the smoke poisons you." - the yellow medabot said as he jumped and landed on the other side, then turned around to wait for the SLR-type.

She jumped as well and landed on the other side, but she lost balance, so Metabee grabbed her arm to prevent her from falling.

"Let's go, then." - Brass said while he nodded and both ran.

They didn't take too long to find the control room, but the door was stuck. The KBT-type started charging towards the door, but it didn't work and he couldn't use his missiles, because it could make that room collapse. Brass scanned the door and found some weak points she could shoot at to make breaking through the door easier. She shot at the door's joints and Metabee charged, taking the door down.

"Nice one." - he said and she smiled.

They entered the room and observed. There was a huge machine in front of them, with a large wire covered in electricity passing through the ceiling and going to the antennae on the roof. There was a console on the machine's base. They ran to it and Metabee started looking for a way to stop the virus.

Brass noticed there was a kind of CD driver looking device that was meant for medals instead of CDs right beside the console. And it gave her an idea: if she got rid of the virus, then she had the cure in her!

"Quick, insert my medal there!" - she said, pointing to the device.

"Huh?" - the yellow medabot didn't understand - "Why?"

"You helped me to get free from the virus, that means my medal contains the cure!" - she told him while using the console - "I'm programming the antennae to send the content of my medal to all the infected medabots."

Metabee was about to agree when it finally hit him.

"Wait... If you do that, you won't just spread the cure, you'll spread yourself too!" - he said worriedly.

"There's a chance that might happen, but this is our only solution." - she explained. - "We have to do it."

"What?!" - he was a bit angry now - "I'm not going to let you destroy yourself!"

"Metabee, we can't give up on all the medabots!" - she frowned.

"I'm not going to give up on you either!" - he shouted while holding her shoulders tightly - "We can find another way."

"There's no other way. If we don't do it now, the war will spread far from the range of the antennae and we won't be able to cure them all!" - she clasped her hands together trying to convince him.

"Well, I don't care!" - he said a bit harshly - "I'll put them down by myself if need be."

"What do you mean 'you don't care'?" - she was not understanding - "You're not being serious, are you? We have to help the others, Metabee!" - she pointed out.

"I-I know, but..."

"That's just not you at all! What's going on with you?"

Those words hit him very hard and deep inside. He knew she spoke the truth. But it was just way too hard to accept the plan would go that way, so he finally snapped.

"I don't want to lose you!" - he squeezed her shoulders tighter and briefly shook her while staring intensely into her eyes, as if he was trying to make his thoughts get through her head without the need of too many words. He lowered his head and went silent.

She blinked in shock: she was stunned. She didn't expect that reaction from him, and that surprise made her feel warm inside. But it wasn't the time to think about such things. They had a really bad problem to solve right now.

"Metabee..." - she gently placed her fingers under his chin to slowly lift his head, making him look at her eyes again - "I really don't want to lose you either. But that's a risk I'm willing to take." - she said solemnly, but softly - "It was all my fault, I've made a huge mistake, and I'll sacrifice myself to fix it if need be."

She suddenly hugged him tightly, almost as if it was going to be the last time she would be able to do that. His eyes were wide open, and he felt truly sad. He returned the embrace even tighter and struggled to let go. Brass gave him one last deep stare and then nodded softly, letting him know she was ready.

She ejected her own medal and he carefully held it and walked to the CD driver looking device. He looked at her medal in thought again, resisting the urge to run away with it in his hands. No... He couldn't do that to her, he didn't have the right to. With his trembling hands, he placed her medal on the device, then started the command Brass had prepared before.

Sparks were coming from down below and were running towards the roof, Metabee figured it was working. He walked to the SLR-type's lifeless body and held its hand, as a way to comfort himself.

"Brass... Please, don't leave..." - he pleaded while staring at the static on the large wires. All he could do now was to hope she would still be there after that.


	2. Liking for Fighting

The day was warm, the sun was bright. Erika and Brass were walking calmly on the sidewalk. They were heading to the park to meet their friends there. Once they arrived at the park, the two ran towards a group of kids that were robattling.

"Hey, guys!" - the girl waved.

"Hi, Erika, Brass." - Ikki said.

"What are you doing?" - she asked curiously.

"We're preparing for an event that's going to happen in two months: the Local Robattle Tournament."

"I'm certainly going to watch it." - a voice said and it turned out to be Henry.

"Why don't you participate?" - Ikki asked.

"I think Arcbeetle and I are ready to retire..." - he said while smiling a bit sadly, he knew those weren't exactly exciting news from him. But suddenly...

"Then you'll have to give me an interview! You're a veteran about to retire! That's a scoop!" - Erika jumped to him and stared at him with her eyes sparkling, while he sweatdropped.

"Well, of course." - he had always wanted her to write something about him... Well, the Phantom Renegade anyways, but since his disguise had been revealed already, he should be the one giving the interview, so why not?

Brass observed two friends robattling while her medafighter was writing some questions in a block. The two fighting were Koji and Sumilidon against Zuru and Roks. That was surely going to be a cool battle.

"Medafighters ready? Robattle!" - Mr. Referee was going to be the judge like usual. It was really nice to have him back.

Both opponents were really fast. They attacked and dodged in perfect timing. Five minutes of battle and nobody had a scratch yet. They didn't flinch at all!

"Roks, use the medaforce!" - Zuru commanded.

"Yes, master." - the KWG-type started focusing his energy.

"Shadow Sword!" - Koji ordered after noticing Zuru's strategy.

Sumilidon started focusing as well. Then, both unleashed their attacks which collided in a big explosion, one completely nullifying the other.

"What?" - Zuru was impressed.

He had no idea Sumilidon could do that! He didn't have a rare medal, but that move sure looked just as powerful! Brass watched that and a memory came to her mind. She remembered Koji talking to Dr. Aki about the shadow sword, and the old scientist confirmed it was the medaforce indeed, but they hadn't come up with an explanation for why Sumilidon could summon it.

Both medafighters ordered their medabots to attack once more: the two medabots ended up punching each other in the face at the same time, then both collapsed, ceasing function simultaneously.

"Function ceased! This match is a draw!" - Mr. Referee said.

The medafighters walked to each other and shook hands, to finish their battle friendly.

"You have a one of a kind medabot, Koji." - Zuru commented.

"Thanks. Your Roks is very strong too." - the rich boy complimented.

Brass looked at her own hands for a moment. She wondered if she would ever be able to do something like that. Koji and Zuru placed the medals back in their medabots, and Neutranurse healed them a bit, making them able to walk to Miss Nae's van that was parked nearby, so she could fix any injury they might have.

"Brass! Let's go home! Time to write my scoop!" - Erika called her medabot while she started walking home.

But the SLR-type didn't move.

"Erika...?" - she called her medafighter, who turned around with a weird expression.

"Brass? Something wrong?" - the girl asked.

"I was wondering, can we... Robattle now?" - she sounded shy when asking that question.

"You want to fight?" - Erika was surprised and she was also hesitant.

"Erika, battle!" - Ikki said - "Give her a chance to test out her new body!"

He was right! Brass hadn't battled with her upgraded body yet. No wonder why she wanted to do it right now.

"Alright! Let's do it, Brass!" - the girl said excitedly.

"Yes!" - the medabot cheered. She was really curious about her body! Time to find out what it could do!

"I'll battle you two." - Banjo offered.

Metabee frowned at that. Redrun was a really mean looking kilobot, he feared she might be way too tough for a first opponent. He was about to object when he heard Erika speak.

"Great! Let's get started!" - she was feeling thrilled, she had almost forgotten how fun it was to robattle!

"So it's agreed!" - Mr. Referee spoke - "This match will be Banjo's Redrun versus Erika's Brass! Medafighters ready? Robattle!"

"Brass! Let's show them what you can do!" - the girl said.

"Right!" - Brass was excited.

The SLR-type started shooting a lot with her right arm, but Redrun managed to take on a full barrage of shots. The DVL-type had a lot of resistance!

"Go, Redrun!" - Banjo said.

The pink kilobot charged really fast, swinging one arm in order to hit Brass. The SLR-type dodged successfully.

"Brass, keep firing!" - Erika told her medabot.

The Last Sailor shot several times with her right arm while running and dodging, but so far Redrun didn't have one single scratch on her.

"Redrun is a tough cookie, huh?" - the boy said. Indeed, she was...

"Brass, don't give up! She can't keep on taking shots forever!" - the girl encouraged her partner.

The SLR-type kept shooting and finally, it seemed to start taking effect. Redrun's armor was all scratched, but no major damage yet. Still, that was something.

"Time to get rid of those shots. Redrun, get her." - Banjo told his kilobot.

The pink mean looking kilobot suddenly charged and hit Brass twice and very hard, sending her flying a few feet.

" _Right arm: function ceased. Legs at 50%. Main servo at 80%._ " - Erika's medawatch warned.

The girl was alarmed. Maybe Redrun was way too much for their first fight after some time and with a new body.

"Erika!" - Brass called her - "We're going to win this!"

"Brass..." - the medafighter sounded a bit worried until she noticed something flashing on her medawatch - "Huh? A new move?" - she read it - " _Sharp Shot._ "

All of a sudden, the bow behind Brass' head changed and morphed into a kind of scope, then the barrel of her left arm extended a bit. The SLR-type kneeled on the ground and aimed carefully. Redrun was charging once more towards her. When the pink kilobot was about to reach Brass, she shot at a very precise point. A loud noise echoed through all the park while everyone stared with their eyes wide open at the two frozen opponents. That was a huge firepower in that left arm! Then, a few seconds later, Redrun fell to the ground and her medal was ejected.

"Function ceased! The winner is Brass!" - Mr. Referee proudly announced.

"Wow!" - Ikki was truly impressed, and Metabee was as well.

"We did it, Brass!" - the girl cheered while hugging her medabot. Brass giggled happily, she was so glad!

"Why don't you two participate on the Local Tournament?" - Miss Nae appeared at last.

"I... I don't know." - Erika was a bit uneasy.

That wasn't really her cup of tea. She'd rather take pictures of the medabots in action, instead of going to battle herself. But then, she noticed her medabot looking at her expectantly. Brass actually wanted to compete?

"If you don't want to compete on the solo battles, you can join us in the team tag battles." - Metabee offered.

"Team tag battles?" - the girl didn't really know how they worked.

"They're robattles between teams of two medafighters." - Mr. Referee explained - "But they're a bit different from the team battles from the World Tournament. To win, you have to defeat both medabots from the opposing team, while in the team battles from the World Tournament, all you had to do was to cease the function of the team captain."

"Oh, I understand. Well, what do you say, Brass? Are you up to compete?" - she asked.

"Yes, yes!" - the SLR-type was very excited - "I'd like to compete in both modes!"

Wow! She actually wanted to duel other medabots?!

"That's the spirit!" - Metabee patted the female medabot on the back - "Now let's get you fixed up, so you can train with us." - he gave her some support since her legs were a bit damaged.

Miss Nae happily escorted them to her van, so she could work on Brass. Erika just watched with a slightly worried expression. Would her dear medabot be able to take on all those battles? Oh, she didn't want her best friend to be destroyed again! She tried to push aside the horrifying memories of Brass' old body completely ruined and her medal cracked.

"Erika." - Ikki called her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

The girl screamed startled, then turned around to see who had touched her.

"Oh, Ikki... Don't scare me like that!" - she briefly scolded him, then sighed.

"I know why you're hesitant." - the boy lowered his head and stared at the ground for a moment while remembering of what had happened to Brass and comparing it to the time he thought he had lost Metabee - "I've been through that too." - he told her - "But don't worry, it's just a small event, and Mr. Referee will be there to make sure everyone obey the rules. So you'll be fine." - he laughed awkwardly at the memory of Seaslug being hit by a paralyzing dart shot from a satellite.

"I guess you're right." - she smiled a bit - "Yeah, nobody can mess around with Mr. Referee there. And why would someone try to cause trouble in such a small event, right?"

She silently thanked Ikki for the help, she needed someone to make her feel safer with all that.

"Done. You're ready to go now!" - Miss Nae said after she finished repairing Brass.

"Let's go train!" - Metabee grabbed his friend's hand and dragged her with him towards somewhere they could practice.

The SLR-type smiled, she was so happy the KBT-type was willing to help her! Erika and Ikki ran after their medabots. While everyone was training and having fun, they didn't notice something was spying on them. There was a kind of camera device hidden on a bush nearby, but it wasn't just a camera, there was much more to it than meets the eye.

It was self-aware, a true AI, like the medabots, but certainly didn't look like one. It was very small and had tiny thin legs that allowed it to move. All it did was to snap some pictures of all the kids and their medabots. Its visor had a kind of scanner it was using to collect data.

"Studying possible test subject candidates." - it said while scanning and taking a picture - "Metabee: rare Kabuto medal on the final stage. Model: KBT-2." - it took a picture of the yellow medabot while analyzing - "Roks: rare Kuwagata medal on the final stage. Model: KWG-2." - it kept going on a long list.

" _Good, keep it up._ " - a voice told it.

* * *

 

Inside of what looked like a dark security room, filled with monitors showing several different images from different places at the same time, a figure sat on a chair near the keyboard.

"I want to know everything you can tell me about all of them." - the voice spoke.

It sounded like a human, but part of what could be seen of it showed it wasn't one. It was a machine. A machine that observed every single medabot in the city. What could it want with that data was a mystery.

The list went on and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, when suddenly:

" _Sumilidon: common Kuwagata medal on the final stage... Wait... Scanners detect residues indicating this specimen has summoned the medaforce at least once._ "

"What? That's impossible!" - the machine said while looking at the monitor showing the picture that camera-like robot had taken of the medabot. How could...? The metal being was about to voice its thoughts, but then a new information sounded even more mysterious.

" _Last Sailor: Kabuto medal. Attempting further analysis... Cannot extract data. Model: SLR-2._ " - a picture of Brass appeared on the screen.

"What do you mean 'cannot extract data'?" - the machine asked, its voice sounded a bit angry and frustrated.

" _It appears this medabot has suffered a fatal injury on its medal, making it impossible to decipher the encrypted information within it._ " - more pictures of Brass appeared.

"If we can't have access to that data, how can its body recognize the medal?!" - the machine shouted. It was simply unbelievable! It shouldn't happen at all!

" _I have no data available on the subject._ "

"Well, then let's keep an eye on that one. The intriguing ones are always the best candidates." - the machine concluded. It grew very interested in the SLR-type. A medabot with unreachable encrypted information... It surely was a one of a kind candidate to be a great test subject... But they had to see if it had the other aspects they were seeking as well.

* * *

 

The next day, Ikki and Metabee showed Erika and Brass where they should go to sign up for the Tournament. They were in the center of the city, a place full of very high buildings. They seemed to be lost.

"Are you sure it's here, Ikki?" - Erika asked.

"I'm sure I signed up right there!" - he pointed to the closest building.

"I do remember that, but it looks like it's closed." - Metabee said.

"Wait, so that means we can't sign up anymore?" - Brass was a bit upset, she really wanted to participate.

"No way! The poster said the registration period would last until next week!" - Ikki pulled out the piece of paper from his pocket, reading the date written on it.

"Then there's something wrong. They shouldn't be closed." - Erika commented - "Let's go check it out!"

They all ran to the place where they should sign up, trying to look for a clue. Nothing seemed to give them any tips of what could've happened until they finally saw a worker. The tall blonde man was dressed in a black tux and he was about to go inside the building.

"Excuse me, mister." - the girl called him.

"Huh?" - he said as he turned around.

"What did happen to the registration table?" - Ikki asked.

"It's been closed. We've already reached the maximum limit of participants." - the man told them.

"What? Oh, c'mon, you can't be serious!" - Metabee frowned. He hadn't signed up for the team tag battle mode!

"I am. We had already established the limit should be of 100 medabots for the solo mode and 50 duos for the team tag battle mode." - the man explained - "I'm sorry, but you arrived too late. We can't have an odd number of competitors, this would ruin the match system."

The four frowned. Brass clearly was the most upset one. Her dreams had just been crushed right in front of her.

"Excuse me." - a voice said, it was a person completely covered by a huge brown overcoat and a brown hat hiding the face - "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I have found these two adorable kids that really wanted to participate as well, but they can't sign up." - he pointed to the little kids right beside him - "I think I have a solution to this problem. You could add these two teams to the team tag battle mode and you could add these medabots to the solo mode." - he pointed to both Brass and one of the medabots that were with the kids - "This way you'd not have an odd number and everyone would be happy."

"Hm... You're right. It'd be 102 solo competitors and 52 teams." - the blonde man said - "I think it'll work. Please, follow me inside then." - the man opened a door for everyone and entered the building.

"Alright!" - Ikki cheered.

"Thank you, mister." - Erika told the mysterious man - "It means a lot to me and Brass."

"Don't mention it." - the man giggled softly - "I noticed your medabot was really sad. It'd be a shame if she couldn't compete, right?" - he stared at the Last Sailor.

The SLR-type smiled at him. All the kids and their medabots went inside the building, waving goodbye to the good sir that helped them. He waved back, wishing them good luck. When they all were gone, he smirked.

"Perfect." - he said to his communicator - "I had to see her in person. Now I know it was wise to guarantee she'd get to compete. There's no better way to study a target than to watch it battling."

" _Finished writing journal entry._ " - a voice replied to him - " _Do you wish anything else?_ "

"Let's just set up some camera drones at the stadium. So we can watch from a closer look."

" _All equipment will be provided, sir._ "

The man smiled, then stuffed his hands inside his pockets and left calmly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The name of the skill "Sharp Shot" is based on the word "Sharpshooter", which is a really good marksman.


	3. The Tag-Battle Preliminaries

During the morning, Ikki, Metabee, Erika and Brass were training. They had asked Henry's and Miss Nae's help, so Honey, Arcbeetle and Rokusho came to battle. Well, Honey would watch, actually.

"This will be just a simulation, no real attacks, and no medaforce. We'll just test out your strategies, okay?" - the young man said.

"Right." - Ikki answered.

"I've installed some holographic displays on the medabots visors, so when Brass, Metabee and Arcbeetle pretend to shoot, fake shots will appear, making the battle a bit more realistic." - Miss Nae told them, while Arcbeetle demonstrated some fake shots.

"Cool." - Metabee said.

"I've also given you all a component that'll make your medawatches show the 'damage' of the fake shots." - she added.

"That's great, Miss Nae." - Erika was glad they were all putting a lot of effort into training them.

"I'll be the judge of this match!" - Mr. Referee suddenly appeared jumping down from a light pole - "It won't be an official robattle, but I'll have to make sure nobody will really attack in the simulation." - he explained as he himself put a special pair of glasses - "Medafighters ready? Robattle!"

"Metabee, let's start off with heavy firepower!" - Ikki said - " _Seeker Missiles!_ "

"Missiles launch!" - the KBT-type shouted.

Suddenly two green holographic missiles came out of Metabee's head, flying towards Arcbeetle. The red medabot lifted his arms and crossed them in front of his face, shield himself. The holographic missiles collided with him, creating a lot of fake smoke.

" _Left arm: function ceased._ " - Henry's medawatch alerted. He sweated a little, with a worried expression about his medabot. That was a nice start! He smirked at their strategy, no longer sweating. He was planning a way to counter them, to see what they'd do to help each other.

"Metabee, Rokusho is on the move." - Brass warned him.

That wasn't a good sign. Rokusho was a really fast medabot that could deal lots of damage. Suddenly he saw the purple and silver medabot appear right behind him. The KWG-type swung his arms twice, trying to hit Metabee, who dodged both attacks.

"Hey! No real attacks!" - the yellow medabot shouted while jumping backward.

"I won't hit you hard, I know how to control my strength." - Rokusho said - "But I can't slow down, or it'll be too easy." - he charged at Metabee again.

The KBT-type kept dodging. Rokusho was being pretty harsh now, he couldn't stay on the defensive forever! But then a few pink holographic shots appeared, hitting the silver and purple medabot in a few places. He retreated quickly, so he'd not be damaged any further.

"Phew... Thanks, Brass." - Metabee said. Great way to remove the pressure from him.

"Anytime." - the SLR-type replied while aiming with her left arm at Rokusho.

She was going to use her brand new move on him. Once she was locked on him, she prepared to fire. Her new move was great, but there's always a downside: it took too long to aim and fire. That long delay was already enough for Arcbeetle to charge up his most powerful normal attack: the Prominence.

"And checkmate!" - Henry said while the battle paused.

"Huh? What's going on?" - Erika was confused.

"You see, Brass' _Sharp Shot_ takes a long time to fire. Even though it's a really good skill and a direct hit literally can one-shot an opponent, you can't rely on it as the main source of damage since it'll make her become vulnerable. Arcbeetle was about to shoot a beam at her right before she could finish her own attack." - Miss Nae explained while pointing out to both medabots - "She'd certainly be hit by it since she'd not have enough time to react, while Rokusho still had a chance to dodge her shot."

"Oh..." - the girl was saddened by that, she didn't think things through fast enough to assume that might happen, but then she lifted her face surprised as the KBT-type medabot started speaking.

"It's okay, I can tank for her instead." - Metabee quickly positioned himself near Brass, serving as a wall to protect her from Arcbeetle's attack.

Erika smiled at that: her medabot had just won a knight in shining armor willing to be her shield. She admired Metabee's attitude. He was always nice to them. And she knew Brass was grateful for that as well. One day they should give him a really good reward.

"That's a risky move." - Henry warned, drawing her attention back to reality - "You might sometimes be able to take the damage, since you do have more defenses, but you'd not 'tank' the Prominence unless you bring a defense medapart with you."

Ikki then thought about back in the day he and Metabee were helping out Nathan and Stingray. He could even remember how hyper his medabot was about defending. " _Defense! Defense! Defense!_ " He would shout happily. The boy smirked at that memory. But then he remembered how quickly Peppercat managed to take off Stingray once she actually started fighting. And to think that she had been damaged a lot before that. His smile immediately faded away.

"He's right." - he said in a serious tone - "We can't be sure you'll always be able to defend her." - he told Metabee, making the medabot lower his head in thought - "We need to work on another strategy."

Brass observed how Metabee was really trying to figure something out. Funny, he was never really into thinking about the strategy himself, that was usually Ikki's work. But he was putting a lot of effort into that now. Why? She thought about all he had gone through to help her when she was kidnapped and used as a bait. That all was a fair display of heroism and consideration from him. He cared about her. And she cared about him just as much, why wouldn't she? The SLR-type then noticed she should assist them and put as much effort into it as Metabee was doing, so she started thinking about a new strategy too.

"I think I know what to do." - she said, drawing everyone's attention - "We should wait until our opponents drop their guard first. We could work on a kind of distraction."

"You're right! You just gave me an idea!" - Ikki started announcing his plan.

"Way to go, Brass." - the yellow medabot nudged her lightly, making her smile.

Henry was watching the kids and their medabots planning together, sometimes he heard a few excited gasps. That made him feel really happy inside, he could remember how wonderful it was to robattle when he was a boy, long ago. Rokusho was also observing, he felt glad that he had helped them. Soon the event was going to start, and he knew they'd be ready and that they'd do their best to win. He could remember how well Metabee and Brass worked together when they fought against the ninja duo, at the moment they improvised a plan by themselves. He had the feeling they'd shine in that Tournament for sure.

Those two weren't the only ones thinking that way, though. That same camera robot from the day before was there recording everything and sending all the data to its contact.

* * *

 

"I can see the excitement in their faces." - the mysterious machine said - "I can also see our candidate is going to work pretty hard. She seems to be a good addition, but let's not rush any conclusions. I want to see her in the Tournament first."

It turned off the screen once it received all the data. Then it started typing frantically on the huge keyboard in front of it. Its fingers moved really fast, still, they didn't miss one single key, they had really precise moves. It kept typing endlessly. It was up to something, and it was already preparing all the resources it needed for its plan to execute it soon.

* * *

 

Some weeks later, the team had mastered quite a few strategies. They were just about to win another simulation against Rokusho and Arcbeetle. The red KBT-type medabot was already out, only the KWG-type was left to be dealt with.

"Man, that guy is still as fast as ever!" - Metabee was looking around, trying to lock on the silver and purple medabot.

"Metabee, he's coming at you from your right!" - Brass warned him.

The yellow medabot turned around just in time to grab Rokusho's arms. Both struggled for a while, then the KBT-type spun and threw the red-eyed medabot to the ground a few feet away from him. At that, Brass ran and pointed her left arm at him.

"Now that's checkmate!" - Metabee said.

"Great job, you guys." - Henry said while he, Miss Nae and Honey clapped.

That was a true display of teamwork!

Rokusho got up and stared at the duo.

"You two fought well." - he said - "You both have become a lot stronger."

"Thank you, Rokusho." - Brass was flattered by that comment. A really strong medabot had complimented her battling skills!

Metabee just smiled at Brass, then at the older medabot. It was nice of him to give her more confidence in herself by doing that. Ikki and Erika kept discussing a few more details with Henry and Miss Nae, just to add some final tweaks to their strategies. Of course, they would have to improvise too, since it's impossible to know how the opponent might react, but it's never a waste to think ahead about all the possibilities and be prepared, right?

Once again the small camera bot was spying everyone and sending data to its "boss" while they were busy.

* * *

 

"She has become a lot stronger and nimbler after polishing her abilities, that's for sure." - the machine said - "I am going to watch them tomorrow in person. I want to see her in action with my own eyes..." - it then got up from its chair and left the room, as if it were going to prepare its disguise.

" _Just finished gathering all the data._ " - the camera bot said to the machine's communicator - " _Should I be there too?_ "

"Yes. One extra pair of eyes to watch everything will be a good help."

" _Alright. I am on my way to install myself while the place is still empty._ "

"Good work. Keep it up."

" _Yes, sir._ "

* * *

 

The next morning, Ikki, Erika, Metabee and Brass were running as fast as they could to get to the Tournament Stadium in time. When they finally arrived the doors were closed and two guards stood outside. The boy looked at his medawatch: they had a arrived very early.

"Excuse me, but when will the doors open?" - the girl asked.

"They won't open until today's matches are finished. The doors have been closed for 30 minutes already. The event is about to start." - he told her.

"What? But the announcement says it'll start at 9:00am! It's still 7:50am!" - Ikki said.

"No, it's 8:50am, everyone is already inside." - the other guard spoke.

"That's not possible. Both our medawatches are correct, it is still 7:50am." - Erika retorted.

"Daylight Saving Time started today at 00:00am, kiddo. I can't help you if you didn't change your clock." - the guard said.

"Huh? But we don't use that time system in Japan!" - the boy objected.

"But the main sponsors of the Tournament are from countries that do, so... The hour is synced according to their time."

"That's just plain stupid! We are the ones hosting the Tournament, why should we follow their schedule and not ours?!" - the girl was angry now.

"That's right! You let us get inside!" - Metabee shouted at them.

"You better leave if you're going to cause confusion, or we'll be forced to take you out of here."

The girl gasped then growled madly while Ikki held her shoulders and led her away from those guards. Metabee was about to explode in anger, but Brass placed a hand on his shoulder, making him look at her. She shook her head, meaning it wasn't worth it, so they all just left.

"Talk about a setback." - Ikki sighed.

"What is upsetting you?" - a voice spoke.

The four looked towards where the voice came from and saw the man from last time.

"Hey, it's you! The man who helped us sign Erika and Brass up!" - Metabee said.

"Yes, it's me. You all left happy when we first met, but now I found you so sad. What did happen?"

"The guards won't let us get inside because we're 'late'. But how could we have guessed they don't use our time system?" - Erika said sadly.

"Oh, that's terrible! Indeed, they're the wrong ones." - the man said - "Follow me, I'll help you enter the stadium."

"You will? How?" - Brass was a bit startled, but happy nonetheless.

The man led them to a door on the other side of the building that was locked by an electronic panel.

"Let's see if I can figure out the combination." - he said as he started typing codes on the panel - "It might take a few minutes, but I'm sure I can guess it with a few tries."

Ikki and Metabee were excited. Yes! They were going to make it! Brass was also glad the man had appeared to save the day. Erika just smiled at the trio, she looked briefly at the man and saw something that made her gasp. One of the man's fingers opened itself, revealing to be made of a metallic shell with several wires inside. The wires connected to the panel and hacked the code, unlocking the door. The finger quickly reassembled itself to look normal again.

"There. Done." - he said, not noticing the girl had seen what he did - "You can all enter. You better hurry, they're already calling the names of the duos. I'll watch you with the audience."

"Thanks, mister!" - the black haired boy said and sprinted inside, with Metabee, Erika, and Brass on his heels.

The girl glanced backward: she couldn't believe in what she had just seen! What was up with that man? He did help them, but still, there was something amiss about him. They ran as fast as they could and managed to reach the room where all the other participants were waiting to be called to the stadium.

"Ikki." - Kouji said to the boy that was panting from so much running - "Good thing you made it in time. I'd never forgive you if you didn't give me a chance of battling you because you were declassified for arriving too late."

The boy laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head while sweatdropping.

"Ah... Sure... Thanks, Kouji." - he said.

"Hello, you guys." - Karin greeted them softly.

"Hi, Karin." - they all replied in unison.

" _And now calling Team Rosewood!_ " - a voice shouted from the TV screen hanging from the ceiling.

"That's us!" - Kouji said excitedly.

"Then let's go!" - Karin smiled.

Both ran down a corridor with their medabots following close behind. When they entered the stadium, they walked calmly and waved at everyone watching them. Their smiles showed how excited they were for being there. Neutranurse and Sumilidon seemed to be happy as well.

Erika looked around the room they were in, it seems all their friends had been called already since she couldn't see any known face there.

Mr. Referee kept calling the teams. After 10 other teams had been called, it was finally their turn.

" _Now let's greet Team Kabuto!_ "

The teammates briefly stared at each other then quickly headed to the stadium. Upon entering it, the strong light almost blinded them at first, but they got used to it. They heard a rain of applause washing away their nervousness and waved happily. It was great to feel so welcome! In the middle of the path they had to walk through, they met with Mr. Referee. He gave them a token with their team's name on it, then pointed to where they should go: the end of a long line with all the other duos.

As they walked towards their position, they could take a look at who their opponents would be. They saw many teams with really good compositions, like Team Red, that had Arc-Dash and Peppercat on it, or Team Beetle, with Roks and Blakbeetle. They just hoped they could compete with that... Oh, c'mon, of course they could! They were going to give everyone a show and win that tournament!

Soon all the teams had been called and everyone went to a corridor filled with several rooms where each team was supposed to stay. The number of the room Team Kabuto had to go was written on their token.

"Room 38." - Ikki said, then he looked at the door, confirming it matched their token - "It's here."

They opened it and entered the room. Inside there were two small white sofas, a dark brown wooden coffee table between them with some snacks on it, a beige carpet covering the floor in the whole room, a white minibar filled with soda and juice in one of the corners, short light blue curtains on the small window and a large TV screen on the wall across the window.

"Looks comfy enough." - Erika smiled.

"We can watch the others battling and plan something in case we eventually fight against them." - the boy turned the TV screen on so they could watch the matches.

"I'll record them so we can take a look at the details as many times as we need." - the girl said and started pressing some buttons on her camera, then she pointed it to the TV.

"Looks like the new features on your camera are useful after all." - Metabee said.

Indeed, Erika never used them, because she was stubborn about recording videos. She didn't want to do the same thing the Broadcasting Club did. But those features were actually really good. Maybe she should start giving them a try.

"Yeah..." - she smiled awkwardly, sweat dropping a bit, she knew what he meant by that. Brass giggled softly.

" _The first tag-battle of the Local Tournament is starting now! Team Red versus Team Bunny!_ " - Mr. Referee announced from the TV.

Great! They could see how well Peppercat and Arc-Dash would perform!

* * *

 

In the stadium, both teams stood on each side of the arena. Arc-Dash and Peppercat seemed pretty confident. They were up against a Tankar and a Hopstar. What a weird team composition!

"Medafighters ready? Robattle!" - Mr. Referee moved his arm downwards, starting the match.

"Tankar, start shooting!" - a boy from Team Bunny shouted.

The medabot shot several rounds towards the duo. Although they didn't seem to deal too much damage at first, being exposed to that rain of bullets for too long wasn't going to be something good.

"Peppercat, evade!" - Samantha gave her command.

The CAT-type medabot jumped around, avoiding the bullets and making her way towards the opponents.

"Use your _Light Jab_!" - the green eyed girl ordered.

One of Peppercat's arms produced blue electric sparkles, she was charging up a powerful attack.

"Dear Hopstar, intercept her." - a girl from the opposing team said softly.

The female medabot leaped quickly in front of Peppercat, then she spun around and hit a strong kick on the red medabot's head, sending her a few feet back.

"Peppercat!" - Samantha yelled as Ginkai and Arc-Dash gasped.

Guess it wasn't going to be an easy fight.

"Arc-Dash, blast that medabot!" - the boy shouted.

"Right!" - the KBT-type replied and charged a powerful beam with his head part and shot at Hopstar.

But the adversary team didn't seem too worried. Hopstar backflipped in the air and landed on her feet behind Tankar, who took the shot. The male medabot shook some dust off and stared at the enemy team, he was pretty much unharmed.

"He has way too much defense!" - Ginkai was surprised - "We need a better strategy."

"We need speed." - Peppercat told him, then she stared at Arc-Dash, who medachanged into his action mode.

He accelerated and the CAT-type medabot jumped on him. He started spinning, giving a boost in speed to Peppercat, then he tossed her towards the opponents. She was so fast they didn't have time to react: she placed both her claws on their heads and electrocuted them.

While they were stunned by her attack, Arc-Dash took the chance to focus and summon the power of his rare medal.

"Medaforce!" - he yelled as he launched a large reddish beam. The red female medabot leaped out of the way just before the beam hit their adversaries.

After the blinding light and the smoke faded, everyone could see the opponents had been knocked out completely and their medals had been ejected.

"Function ceased! The winner is Team Red!" - Mr. Referee announced the first victory of the tag-battle mode.

"Alright!" - Arc-Dash cheered, then he held Peppercat's hand high in the air, lifting her up in the process since he was much taller than her. She sweatdropped a bit but didn't seem bothered by that.

* * *

 

"Wow!" - Ikki was impressed.

"That was good thinking!" - Erika admired.

They were going to face some though duo if they ever crossed those two. And they had the feeling they would, so they thought they should be prepared for that.

* * *

 

Some battles later, it was Team Kabuto's turn. They were going to fight against Team Flame, composed by Phoenix and Saldron.

"Robattle!" - Mr. Referee started the match.

"Attack!" - Ikki and Erika said in unison.

Both Metabee and Brass started shooting at their opponents. But they quickly retaliated: Phoenix used his Fire Blast and Saldron used his Flamethrower. The flames consumed all the bullets.

Ikki and Erika gasped. That wasn't good.

"We have to find a way to get through that fire!" - the girl said.

"Metabee, try some close combat!" - the boy told his medabot.

The KBT-type charged and managed to punch Saldron in the face, but that didn't deal too much damage and before he could do anything else, both medabots blasted him away with their flames, creating a wall made of fire to shield them.

"Ikki!" - the green eyed medabot shouted at him - "Are you trying to turn me into barbecue?! They almost melted my tinpet!" - he was clearly angry, and that made his medafighter sweatdrop.

"Sorry..." - Ikki said, then he had an idea - "Wait... I have a plan. But you'll have to do it fast or you'll just be blasted away again. Think you can do it?"

"Do I have a choice?" - Metabee just asked bluntly.

"Erika, tell Brass to wait for our signal by that flame wall." - the boy said.

"Okay. Brass get ready!" - the girl told her and the SLR-type moved into position.

"Metabee, action mode! Run through the fire!" - Ikki ordered.

The medabot medachanged and accelerated as fast as he could. He jumped through the flame wall and headed to the two opponents.

" _Seeker Missiles!_ "

Metabee medachanged back to his normal mode and shot his missiles in a very close range, which didn't give enough time for the adversaries to retaliate. They took the shot and it was a direct hit, but the fight wasn't over yet.

"Now, Erika!"

"Brass, jump over the wall and use your _Sharp Shot_!" - the girl told her.

The SLR-type leaped and scanned the smoke.

"C'mon... C'mon!" - she pleaded for her scanners to find their opponents quickly, otherwise they'd lose their chance to win, and fortunately, her aim managed to lock on the targets - "Gotcha!" - she shot with her left arm.

The shot passed through both medabots, dealing a massive amount of damage. When the smoke faded the two adversaries were still standing, but only for a short time. They fell to the ground and their medals were ejected.

"Function ceased! The winner is Team Kabuto!" - Mr. Referee announced.

"Yeah!" - Ikki threw his fist in the air, while Erika jumped cheering.

Metabee and Brass high fived happily.

* * *

 

A few matches later and the sun was already setting.

" _Today's preliminary tag-battle matches are over! The remaining 26 teams will face each other in the next round! In the next two days we'll have the preliminary matches of the solo mode!_ " - Mr. Referee announced through the TV screen on the collective room the winning teams shared.

The group of friends was talking about how tough was the competition and the fact that they all had won this first round.

"Looks like we all made it." - Karin said.

"Yeah. I wonder if the solo mode will be this hard." - Erika pondered.

"Well, it won't be a problem for Sumilidon after so much intensive training." - Kouji commented.

"It won't be a problem for Metabee either. We're more than ready." - Ikki told him.

"You said it, Ikki!" - Metabee clenched a fist in determination.

Erika sweat dropped a bit at the guys competing among themselves so early. ' _Rivals will always be rivals..._ ' She thought.

"We'll be ready too, won't we?" - Brass asked, snapping Erika out of her thoughts.

"Brass..." - the girl looked at her medabot.

She never had imagined robattling actually meant something to the SLR-type. She felt bad for always making Brass go to so many places with her to assist her with her scoops when she never asked what her medabot really wanted to do. Well, time to do things differently and start doing something for her after all.

"We will, Brass." - Erika assured her, placing a hand on her medabot's shoulder.

She just hoped her skills as a medafighter would match Brass' ability to battle. Her medabot was relying on her, she couldn't let her down. She had to do her best. The girl looked out of the window and saw the first star of the night sparkle in the sky. She made a wish: she wished Brass would shine in the solo mode and that she wouldn't screw her medabot's dreams up with any kind of clumsiness on her part. She glanced to her side and saw the SLR-type was also looking at the star. She was probably making a wish as well.

"We'll win this, Erika." - Brass told her.

The girl smiled and nodded. Brass was right. All she needed was more confidence in her battling skills and they could win for sure!


	4. Wounded Pride

During two days, the solo mode matches took place. Each duel was amazing on its own, every medabot fighting was just formidable. Among the group of friends, Sumilidon, Roks, and Peppercat fought with the grace of a fast melee medabot, crushing their opponents with ease. Arc-Dash and Blakbeetle had devastating firepower that proved to be too much for their adversaries to handle. Karen and Neutranurse had opted for not competing on the solo mode, even though they agreed to support Kouji and Sumilidon on the tag-battle mode.

Metabee, skilled as ever, was giving a hard time to a Belzelga. He managed to kite him successfully, by medachanging to his action mode to gain distance, then transforming back to normal mode to shoot at the DVL-type medabot. In a few minutes, they had already worn the mean medabot off.

"Time to finish this!" - the KBT-type said then aimed with his head - "Missiles launch!"

He shot his missiles at Belzelga, making the medabot eject his medal.

"Function ceased, the winner is Metabee!" - Mr. Referee shouted.

"Great job, Metabee!" - Ikki cheered for him.

"Piece of cake!" - the yellow medabot stroke his hand on his chest as if he were polishing the nails he didn't have, then stared at it.

* * *

 

Brass had watched the battle. She noticed Metabee was really confident. She wished she didn't become nervous when she heard she was going to fight soon. She wanted to be as calm and cool as he was. She actually looked up to him, almost like a kind of role model, at least in the world of robattles... He could be a great teacher and she was willing to learn all she could from him, so she always watched his battles carefully, paying close attention to all the details. If she wanted to become a good fighter, she had to observe how the others battled and take note of everything important.

"Ready for your battle?" - Metabee asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She jumped startled, shrugging his hand off in the process. She was traveling so deeply in her thoughts that she didn't realize he had already left the arena. He looked at her with a weird and somewhat upset expression. He didn't expect that reaction from her.

"Sorry..." - she stared at her feet.

"You okay?"

She nodded in response.

"I'm just a little worried about the match." - she confessed.

"Don't sweat it." - he told her - "You're a skilled fighter, Brass. You've won quite a few battles already. You'll be fine."

"This is different, Metabee." - she was a bit nervous - "Our opponents are much stronger than any adversary I've faced so far."

"No, no. It's not different." - he said - "Just treat this battle like any other. Trust me, being stressed doesn't help at all."

She sighed briefly.

"Okay. You're right." - she calmed herself down.

"Let's get to the next match! Brass versus Drakonfly!" - Mr. Referee announced on the TV screen.

"Brass, it's our turn!" - Erika called and headed to the stadium.

"I have to go." - she said to Metabee and started making her way to the arena as well.

"Brass!" - the KBT-type called her and she turned her head to look at him - "Good luck." - he gave her a thumbs up.

She smiled and nodded, then ran after her medafighter.

* * *

 

In the arena, Brass was in trouble: her opponent was a flying medabot that wouldn't quit shooting at her from the sky. And it was really hard to lock on him because he was too fast, even to just shoot normal, rapid-fire attacks.

At one point, the flying medabot flew at low altitude and knocked Brass to the ground.

" _Legs at 60%._ " - Erika's medawatch informed.

"Oh, no!" - the girl was desperate - "What am I gonna do?"

Maybe she should throw in the towel... She just was not a good medafighter...

"Erika!" - Brass shouted - "Don't... Give up!" - she forced herself to stand up with some difficulty since her legs were damaged.

Her medabot was counting on her, she couldn't back down! Suddenly, an idea came to her mind.

"Brass, shoot at the ground!" - she told her.

The SLR-type obeyed, she figured it was probably a plan. The arena was filled with smoke from the impact of all those shots on the ground. Drakonfly charged at the smoke, trying to hit Brass, but she was prepared. Once the flying medabot reached her, she grabbed him and was dragged along with him to the sky.

She started punching his head while holding one of his wings with her other hand. The punches made the flying medabot lose control of his flight, and he glided in the air randomly. Finally, she put the barrel of the gun from her left arm right in the middle of his eyes and shot. The impact of the powerful skill was so strong an explosion occurred.

Brass spun in the air and landed gracefully on her feet, while Drakonfly plummeted from the sky and hit the ground very hard. His medal was ejected.

"Function ceased! The winner is Brass!" - Mr. Referee announced.

Both Erika and Brass hugged each other happily.

* * *

 

A few days later, many of the matches from both the tag-battle and the solo modes had already taken place. The machine watched closely all the recordings it and its camera bot had made.

One video the machine would watch several times was the one with Brass and Metabee fighting against a Snowbro and a Totalizer. He was impressed by their strategy.

* * *

 

_Snowbro had managed to freeze the whole ground of the battlefield, turning it into an ice arena. Metabee and Brass could barely stand up without falling, much less fight in those conditions._

_"Metabee!" - Ikki was nervous, that battle was intense._

_Erika was worried about her medabot damaging herself too badly._

_The two frequently bumped into each other and fell on top of one another. That was some very awkward match. While they were vulnerable, Totalizer shot his beams at them and never missed._

_"We can't take this for too long." - Metabee said while trying to get up, his missiles were offline from all the damage he took._

_The victory was clearly going to be the adversary team's, until the KBT-type and the SLR-type used an awesome strategy._

_"I have an idea!" - Brass shouted._

_They used each other as support to stand up and managed to gain stability. But they worked like a bipod, if one of them slipped, both would fall, so they had to be careful._

_Then, they aimed at the floor and shot until they could remove large ice slabs from the ground. Each one held a slab, so when Totalizer shot at them, the beam ricocheted on the slabs as if they were mirrors and traveled back to the opponents._

_Using each other's weight, Metabee and Brass managed to skate on the ice and change their positions, so they could finally fight back. A laser battle started. The TOT-type and the SBL-type took some damage, at last. But the robattle wasn't over._

_Totalizer charged his attack as much as he could and shot a large beam at Brass. The impact of the attack broke her ice slab in half and threw her sitting to the ground, making Metabee slip and fall face first on the floor. Another beam came at her. She squinted her eyes in fear, holding the two halves of the slab in front of her protectively._

_The slabs were positioned in a certain angle that, when the beam ricocheted on them, it traveled extremely fast towards the adversaries, hitting them both with one shot. A critical hit that ceased their functions almost instantly._

_Metabee and Brass cheered: Team Kabuto had won once again._

* * *

 

"Those two work really well together." - the machine smirked - "I hacked the matchmaking system so they'd always end up facing the toughest opponents, and they managed to win most of the battles so far." - it said as it watched the same clip over and over - "Let's see if they can be victorious when they fight against a team that completely counters them." - the machine played with the keyboard and matched Team Kabuto with Team Sky.

That was certainly going to mean trouble...

* * *

 

"After two more days of Duo Battles, we'll have the semifinals of the Tag-Battle mode!" - Mr. Referee informed the audience - "Today's first match will be between Team Beetle and Team Dragon!"

Roks and Blakbeetle had to fight against Seagaru and Spitfire.

"Medafighters ready? Robattle!" - the referee announced the start.

Seagaru quickly wrapped her tail like legs around Roks, leaving Spitfire free to attack Blakbeetle. The female KBT-type kilobot was having a hard time against the dragon medabot because no matter how many times she shot at him, his head would cure all his damaged parts. And she didn't have enough time to aim for his head, since even while immobilizing Roks, Seagaru could still shoot beams at her, so she was pretty much fighting alone against two opponents. The KWG-type struggled to get free, but it was in vain.

* * *

 

"Woah. Those two are tough." - Ikki commented about Team Dragon.

"And to think Roks and Blakbeetle are having trouble against them." - Erika said.

The two kids were a bit worried. They hoped they could win against Team Dragon in case they ended up facing them, which was pretty likely to happen, considering the situation of the battle happening at that moment.

Metabee looked to the side and noticed Brass was way too quiet... Was she shaking as well?

"What's bothering you?" - he asked.

She blinked and stared at him. How did he guess?

"I have a weird feeling about our next battle." - she replied.

"Oh, the one that's going to be against Team Sky?"

"Yes... I wonder if it'll be too hard..." - she looked at the ceiling in thought - "They're both flying types and they're really strong. What are we going to do?"

"We'll figure it out in the arena." - he told her - "Part of the fun is discovering a new plan in the middle of the fight. If we always knew what we have to do, things wouldn't be as exciting, right?"

He had a valid point.

" _Now that was a nice come back from Team Beetle!_ " - Mr. Referee said through the TV, drawing their attention.

Roks had used the medaforce energy focus channel to make Seagaru let go of him, because of the intense heat produced by the technique. Then he shot at Spitfire. A direct hit, knocking him out. Blakbeetle and the KWG-type made quick work of the remaining opponent and won the battle.

Metabee noticed Roks and Blakbeetle had become much stronger. They'd have to work hard when they eventually face those two.

* * *

 

A few matches later and Team Kabuto had to battle. Team Sky was composed by Femjet and Botafly.

"Since we have two teams that require different types of arena, we'll settle which arena will be used with a coin!" - Mr. Referee explained, picking a coin from his pocket then flipping it.

"Heads!" - Ikki chose.

"Tails!" - one of the opponents chose.

The golden disc spun in the air a few times then landed on Mr. Referee's hand: heads.

"You may choose the type of arena among these 3." - the old man showed him three cards with pictures and a description of each arena.

"I choose the Skyward one." - the boy said.

The battlefield started to change, the ground opened, revealing a new arena filled with several platforms with different heights, so Metabee and Brass could jump on them and keep up with the flying medabots.

"Great choice, Ikki!" - Erika complimented him and he smiled confidently.

No way he'd let those two have all the advantage. Metabee and Brass jumped from one platform to another all the way to the highest level, which had a single and larger platform.

"Medafighters ready? Robattle!" - Mr. Referee started the match.

"Metabee, _Seeker Missiles!_ " - Ikki shouted.

The KBT-type shot his missiles. Femjet turned into her Aeroform, grabbed Botafly and cut through the sky. She was so fast she actually managed to outfly the missiles! They exploded in the air before they could reach her, creating a lot of smoke.

"Woah!" - the two kids gasped in surprise.

"Good thing she doesn't have firepower of her own..." - Metabee commented.

That was true. Her speed was already hard to counter, if she could attack from a distance as well they'd not last long.

The smoke prevented both teams from seeing each other, but that gave Botafly enough time to set up many traps all over the arena, without them noticing, because her flight was so graceful she could barely be found by Brass' scanners. As the smoke finally started to fade, they saw something coming at them really fast.

"Brass, look out!" - Erika shouted.

The SLR-type stared at her side, and before she could react she was thrown to the ground by a really fast Femjet, who had charged at her. Brass' fall made her hit one of the traps Botafly set up: that one canceled her head's scout function, preventing her from raising the team's accuracy for the rest of the match.

"Oh no!" - she was very worried.

Now the chances they had to successfully hit those two were pretty low!

"Ikki, do something!" - the girl yelled at her partner.

He had to think of a plan and fast, otherwise, they were certainly going to lose that battle! Femjet kept charging at them from the sky, pushing them towards the traps that were fatal to shooting type medabots.

" _Right arm: function ceased. Left arm at 10%. Legs at 80%._ " - Ikki's medawatch warned.

" _Legs: function ceased. Main torso at 50%._ " - Erika's medawatch informed.

No matter how hard they tried to run away by jumping to the other platforms, all of them were filled with several traps and Femjet could easily catch up with them.

"Ikki!" - she pressured the boy to act quickly.

"Metabee, use the medaforce!" - was all he could think of.

The yellow medabot channeled for a few seconds, while his partner covered him. She actually managed to land a few shots on Femjet and Botafly when they tried to come too close, making them fly more defensively.

"Medaforce!" - Metabee shouted as he unleashed a bright green beam at them.

But once again, Femjet grabbed Botafly and outflew even the most powerful attack!

Weak from using so much energy, the KBT-type fell on his knees.

"It can't be! There's... There's nothing we can do!" - Erika realized they couldn't win that one. How unfair...

Femjet flew by the highest platform, knocking Metabee off it.

"Metabee!" - Ikki screamed.

The yellow medabot managed to grab the edge of the platform with his functioning arm, but the part was operating at 10% capacity so it couldn't hold his body's weight for too long. His fingers gave up and he fell, but Brass threw herself to the border of the platform and grabbed his arm just in time. He looked at her. Deja vu... Indeed, however, the roles were inverted this time.

With all her strength, she pulled him back on the platform. The next moments played in slow motion. Femjet flew very close to them and the wind accompanying her was so strong that it pushed Brass, making Metabee's already weak grip on her slip.

They looked at each other with scared and shocked expressions. The SLR-type was dragged off the platform by the gust of wind. She fell helplessly, screaming in horror. She hit a trap, which exploded, sending her flying in the air.

She bumped on several platforms as she made her way down to the ground. When she finally hit the floor, the light on her eyes disappeared and her medal was ejected: her function had ceased.

"Brass!" - Metabee and Erika yelled in unison, the girl covering her face, trying to fight the tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

The yellow medabot shot his missiles and made them explode in front of the opponent duo, creating a lot of smoke. He quickly leaped from one platform to another and got to the ground near Brass' body. He kneeled beside her and saw many cracks all over her: she was severely damaged and needed to be repaired as soon as possible.

He reached one shaking arm out for her, his eyes were filled with sadness and worry. She had warned him about that match earlier, and he completely ignored her gut feeling. It was all his fault... His eyes' light faded, but his function didn't cease.

He stood up growling in anger as he started to glow. His eyes came back as white light, his body changed the same way it did in the night Brass' old body was destroyed: his yellow turned into gold, his black, white and gray turned into shades of silver, his red and his green were bright like rubies and emeralds and all the damaged parts were completely repaired.

"Metabee..." - Ikki was astonished, and Erika wasn't less than surprised as well.

The KBT-type medabot shot a white beam of light towards the smoke without even looking at it. Suddenly, Botafly plummeted from the sky and hit the ground really hard. Her function had ceased.

Everyone in the stadium gasped. What was that? How did he do that?

Then, Metabee charged, jumping from one platform to another all the way to the top as the smoke faded. He was extremely fast and nimble. Femjet tried to push him to the floor, but he easily dodged every single attempt.

Once he reached the highest platform, he shot between his feet. The blast launched him to the sky, allowing him to grab Femjet. The flying medabot struggled to get free. She flew in low altitude, making Metabee's body scrape the ground, but he didn't even flinch.

He took the chance to use all his weight to make them spin in the air, then, when he was above her, he pushed her to the floor, ruining her face in the process because of the friction with the ground. He used one of his legs to pin her down and aimed all his guns at her. He shot powerful white beams from all his weapons at her from a very close range.

A huge explosion occurred. After the smoke faded, everyone saw Femjet's body was badly injured, her external armor that protected her tinpet was melted at several points. Were those beams any stronger, her body would have been turned into dust! Even Metabee's own leg, which he used to keep her in place, was almost destroyed by that attack!

"F-function ceased! Team Kabuto is the winner!" - Mr. Referee announced - "What an impressive turn around from Metabee!" - he tried to lighten the mood because everyone was so stunned they had forgotten to applaud.

As if it had finally hit them, the audience started cheering as loud as they could. Now that was a show!

After he heard the battle was officially over and the victory was theirs, Metabee's damaged leg repaired itself almost instantly! He walked up to Brass' body, picked her medal up from the ground, then inserted it on her hatch. Her eyes lit up and she looked at him.

"Metabee...?" - she said weakly - "Did we... Lose?"

"No. We won." - he told her - "You were right about them. I should have listened to you." - he lowered his head - "I'll never take your instincts for granted again."

"Metabee..." - she muttered - "What... Happened to..." - she was going to ask about his appearance, but her system deactivated her (in other words, she fainted).

The KBT-type's color came back to normal and the glow faded as he lifted Brass up, putting one of her arms above his shoulders and dragged her out of the arena. Ikki and Erika didn't know if they should cheer for their victory or if they should be worried about what had happened. They were just so shocked! But... Was that even a bad thing? What if Metabee learned how to control that mysterious power? That would surely come in handy.

Hidden among all the people in the audience, the machine, disguised as a man, was pretty surprised as well.

"So she can trigger him!" - it realized before anyone else - "Guess it's time our candidate test out my experiment." - it held up a small yellow cube in its hand.

* * *

 

A while later, Brass had just been fixed by Miss Nae.

"There you go." - the woman said.

"Thank you, Miss Nae." - the SLR-type replied, then she got up from the worktable and walked to the window.

Miss Nae stared at her in sympathy, she knew how she felt.

"So you're telling me Metabee used that power again?" - Henry asked, drawing the woman's attention.

"Yes." - Ikki told him - "And we could even see more of it: Metabee became super fast! He outran Femjet!"

The young man blinked. How could that be possible? He knew the rare medals were known by how powerful they were, but that power was something totally new! Doctor Aki would love to study that, but Metabee would never let anyone experiment with his medal...

"Can I see Metabee's medal? You don't have to remove it, I just want to look at it." - he said.

"Okay. Metabee, come here!" - the boy called his medabot.

"What is it, Ikki?" - the yellow medabot asked while he walked towards them.

"Turn around, we want to look at your medal."

"What?!" - he was clearly annoyed. What did they want with his medal?!

"We won't touch it, Metabee." - Erika explained - "We just want to see something."

"Fine... I still don't get why all the fuss about my medal..." - he turned around and allowed them to open his hatch.

When they saw the medal, their jaws dropped.

"I can't believe it!" - Henry gasped - "Erika, take a picture. I have to show this to Doctor Aki."

The girl obeyed and took several pictures, just in case one didn't come out good.

"Hey, hey! What's going on?" - Metabee was suspicious, so he closed his hatch and turned to face them - "I want to know what's up with my medal."

"See for yourself." - the girl showed a picture on her camera.

Metabee's eyes widened: his medal had changed! It had evolved beyond what is normally expected from a medal! The flying beetle had changed its position, it's head was turned towards the viewer, as if it were staring right at whoever looked at the medal. The wings still appeared as always, but the exoskeleton that protects the wings was positioned in a way that made it look like a shield. So, literally, the beetle was in a fighting stance!

"What does that mean?" - the medabot asked confused.

"I don't know, but I'll send some pictures to Doctor Aki. I'm sure he'll find out." - Henry told him.

The KBT-type nodded and walked towards Brass, while everyone else kept talking about the same subject.

"How are you holding up?" - he asked her.

She lowered her head.

"I'm so silly..." - she said - "I should have known I'm not meant for this... I am a lousy fighter... I can't robattle."

"C'mon, of course you can. Those opponents were tough and we weren't prepared, that's all." - he tried to remove those thoughts from her mind - "We'll be ready next time."

"We almost lost because of me!" - she turned to him - "I was completely useless in this last match. I'm just not worthy of this Tournament..."

"Don't say that, Brass!" - he kept trying to cheer her up - "You'll shine in the next battles, I know it!"

She just shook her head. And she knew she wouldn't.

"Metabee... Face it: I can't do this... I'm not nearly as good as you..." - sadness could be noted in her voice.

She looked away and left Miss Nae's workshop.

"Brass, wait..." - the yellow medabot called her and he was about to go after her when he was stopped by Ikki.

"Leave her alone, Metabee." - the boy told him - "She needs time to cool off."

The KBT-type just stared at Brass disappearing from his view. He hoped she'd be fine.

* * *

 

Brass sat on a bench by the river, near the bridge. She stared at the water flowing while she thought about the match against Team Sky. The opponents were just formidable, how could she compete with that?

"Hello, there." - a voice said.

She looked to the side: it was the man that had helped them.

"Oh, hello, mister." - she greeted sadly and stared back at the river.

"Are you upset because of that tough match today?" - he asked.

She nodded silently.

"You know, that team had a strategy meant to counter you two." - he told her - "But you still managed to win, so you did a great job."

"It was mere luck." - she said - "I fought terribly bad. I was knocked out!"

"You did your best, I could see you were trying really hard. You two just had a huge disadvantage."

"If that was my best, then I already know I'm not worthy." - she muttered - "I'm just an average medabot, not the ultimate fighting machine..."

They were quiet for a moment, but the man broke the silence.

"What if I told you, that it's not the parts that make an ultimate fighting machine? And that I could help you become one easily?" - he said.

She lifted her head at that. Now that was interesting.

"What do you mean?" - she looked at him.

"You see, all the medabots are equally powerful, there's no medabot that can't be countered or defeated. And it's not impossible to win against one that counters you." - he explained - "All you need is a little help from a software."

"A software?" - she asked confused.

"Yes. It's your brain that'll do all the job. Your mind determinates whether you'll win or lose." - he told her - "You have to train your brain. And I can help you do that, by using this little program I've developed." - he held up a small yellow cube and showed her.

"What does it do?" - she stared at the weird object in front of her.

"Since you haven't heard of the basics about training your mind, this cube is going to accelerate your learning process." - he said - "It'll teach you many strategies in real time, right on the battlefield. Strategies that you might not think about at the moment."

"You mean, just extra information... Extra plans... Can win the battles alone?" - she was skeptical about that.

"Yes. But I see you don't really believe me. I can't blame you." - he shrugged - "Your pride has been wounded in this last battle."

She looked at him for a second. He was right on the spot.

"Yeah... I think so..." - she lowered her head.

"Let's make a deal." - he suggested - "You try out my program, to see if it makes any difference. If it doesn't, then you can quit if you want, but if it does work, you come back to me to update it. After all, while you battle, I am making some research on the other medabots' styles, so any new information will help you out. What do you say?"

She thought for a moment. Maybe that could actually help, who knows?

"Well... It's worth a try, I guess." - she replied.

He held out the cube so she could touch it. Upon contact, yellow sparks ran over her and she was briefly electrocuted, but the shock wasn't too intense, it didn't damage her. Her eyes glowed with a yellow light after she absorbed all the data from the cube. Then the light faded, once the program had installed itself on her system.

"So, how are you feeling?" - he asked - "I need to know if there are any secondary effects. It's for your safety."

"I'm fine. I don't really feel any different." - she told him - "But our talk brought some of my confidence back."

"Well, then go for it, little medabot!" - he said - "You'll shine with this program, no doubt of it."

"I hope so..." - she stood up - "Thanks for the help, mister. I have to go now, it's getting late." - she started running back to the workshop.

"Careful when you walk on these streets at night!" - he shouted - "And don't ever talk to strangers, they're trouble!" - he sounded like a father, and that gained her trust.

She smiled at him, then disappeared in the distance.

"Phase one: complete." - he smirked.

* * *

 

Erika was starting to worry about her medabot. It had been a while and she hadn't come back yet. Soon it was going to rain. Brass was going to be all rusty.

"We can go look for her." - Ikki said.

"I guess so..." - the girl lowered her head, but then a noise drew her attention - "Huh?" - she lifted her face to glance at where the sound came from.

It was the SLR-type. She had opened the door of the workshop. She had made it just in time before the rain poured down in the city.

"Sorry, I'm late." - she said.

"Brass!" - Erika ran to her and hugged her - "I was worried about you. Are you alright?"

The sailor medabot let go and nodded.

"Yes. No need to worry about me." - she assured her medafighter.

"Then let's go home." - the girl said.

The two waved goodbye to their friends and left. Ikki and Metabee exchanged some worried glances.

"There's nothing we can do right now..." - the boy said as both sighed.

"I'm sure Brass will get over that." - Miss Nae told them - "And Erika will be fine."

The two friends nodded. She was probably right. Now they had to focus on how they could tweak their strategies. They were lucky Metabee somehow managed to summon that power and win, but they couldn't rely on it to be victorious in the Tournament.

"We'll go home now. Thanks, Miss Nae." - Metabee said.

Both friends left the workshop. The young woman smiled, wishing them good luck and enlightenment.


	5. Spreading the Indoctrination

The day after, it was time for more solo battles. The opponents were becoming tougher and tougher with each eliminatory phase. Soon only the best would face each other in the finals. Brass sat on a bench in the room all the participants shared. She had her hands clasped together resting on her lap. Her fingers played around with each other frantically: she was nervous and eager at the same time. Her eyes never leaving the screen hanging from the ceiling in front of her.

"You seem to be happier now." - Metabee spoke to her - "You actually look excited."

"I guess you're right." - she said - "I want to grow into a better fighter. That was my goal when I signed up and it still is pending."

"And you'll be successful, just like I will as well." - Erika walked up to them with Ikki by her side.

"I admire your perseverance, Brass." - Ikki told her - "Go for it."

" _And now let's call the next two participants that'll face each other in the next battle!_ " - Mr. Referee said through the TV screen.

The kids and their medabots stared at the TV expectantly. And then, they were shocked by the news.

" _Brass versus Roks!_ " - the pictures of the SLR-type and the KWG-type appeared on the screen as the names were announced.

Oh, no... Erika gasped and Brass put her hands over her "mouth".

"Let's go to our place, Roks!" - Zuru said and his medabot followed him to the stadium.

The girl and her medabot looked at them while they ran.

"We can't do this!" - Erika was worried.

They were way out of those two's league. They were no match for them. Even Metabee had trouble when fighting that guy! How could they even dream of defeating him?

"Erika! Snap out of it!" - Ikki shouted at her - "Zuru and Roks are good, but they're not invincible."

"That's right." - Metabee continued - "Just keep your distance from him and attack whenever it's not too risky."

"I-I'll try..." - Brass said.

The two friends headed to the stadium.

"Good luck!" - the boy and his medabot shouted.

* * *

 

In the arena, the battle had just started. Roks ran around quickly, Brass could barely see a blur indicating where he had been a few seconds ago. He suddenly appeared right in front of her, but he didn't attack.

"I won't go easy on you." - Roks told her - "You wanted to become a better fighter. This will be a good training for you." - he swung his blade at her.

She bent her torso backward, avoiding the attack. If she had a heart, it'd be pounding loudly. He kept attacking her and she kept dodging. She never had enough time to aim before she had to shift her view again after moving away from either his blade or his hammer.

Erika watched worriedly. This wasn't good. If they couldn't retaliate, the fight was pointless. Why did they have to be against him? Roks was much tougher than the ninja medabots Metabee and Brass have faced! And to think they had trouble fighting them at first! But there wasn't going to be a "second round" in this battle, so she didn't have time either to let Brass recover or to think of a plan.

The SLR-type dodged and dodged, one attack after the other. But Roks would never become tired, so what was the point? Then she noticed something on her visor: written in yellow, there was the phrase " _Analyzing combat style..._ " Wait, was it the program that man had installed on her? The phrase changed to " _Verifying all patterns, alternatives, and outcomes..._ " and then once more to " _Creating battle strategy and simulations..._ " Suddenly, holographic models of both her and Roks appeared in her visor. The models were simulating a situation that was about to happen: the KWG-type would swing his blade at her and she was supposed to duck and shoot him at a specific angle. She followed the instructions.

Roks swung his blade at her, she quickly ducked and shot. A successful shot: he actually backed down a bit because of that! It had been her very first attack against him. Well, that had worked, better keep following the tips! He came running with his hammer towards her. She jumped back to dodge the attack and shot at his bladed arm, ruining his momentum and preventing him from making a powerful strike with it.

Erika watched surprised. Brass was fighting on her own and was doing quite well. The girl tried to understand her strategy, then it hit her.

"Good job, Brass. Keep attacking safely." - she told her medabot.

"Right!" - the SLR-type said.

* * *

 

In the room the participants shared, Ikki and Metabee watched the battle.

"She's actually doing fine!" - the boy commented.

"Looks like she's got her fighting spirit back." - the KBT-type said.

* * *

 

Roks had launched himself against her one more time. She took a few steps backward, but she ended up tripping on her feet falling on the ground. Oh, oh. That wasn't on the planned strategy. More yellow phrases appeared on her visor: " _Aborting operation... Calculating current parameters... Generating new simulation..._ "

During the time the program took to create her next move, the KWG-type medabot was closing in on Brass and he was about to strike at her!

* * *

 

Ikki and Metabee were watching.

"Roks is going for it!" - the boy could feel the tension.

"Brass, get out of there!" - the yellow medabot shouted as if she could hear him.

Then they saw her doing something really unexpected: once Roks got close enough, she kicked his legs, making him fall flat on his back, then she leaped backward to create some distance between them as she effectively shot at him a few times.

"Wow!" - the blue-eyed kid was impressed.

"Yeah! You go, girl!" - Metabee cheered.

The young medafighter looked at the KBT-type: so he was rooting for her?

"I thought you wanted to face Roks in the tournament, Metabee." - the boy smirked.

The medabot jumped at the remark.

"Nah... Not really. I can duel him anytime, anyways." - he shrugged, sounding as cool as he could ever be - "It's not like he'll battle any differently in the tournament. So I already know what it'd be like." - he said, while he crossed his arms and closed his eyes, shaking his head - "But that's not the case of some of the others." - he pointed a finger upwards and stared at Ikki with a knowing look.

"I guess you're right." - the boy realized, then he noticed his medabot was no longer looking at him and was watching the match, so he did the same.

* * *

 

Even though the program was helping Brass out, she still struggled a bit against Roks. After all, he wasn't a medabot someone would cross. She kept jumping backward and shooting at the same time, but it wasn't easy to keep up with that for so long and he sure didn't show any signs that he was getting worn out.

"Roks, it's time to finish this little game." - Zuru said.

"Yes, master." - the KWG-type replied and sprinted towards Brass.

The SLR-type just shot at him, but he dodged every single bullet: he was much faster. He quickly made it right in front of her, then he pushed her down so fast she couldn't react.

"Now, use the medaforce."

The silver and purple medabot started to glow as he channeled his power. That didn't look good for Brass.

" _Calculating new strategy..._ " The program worked, but it was taking too long. The medaforce would be channeled faster than that.

"Brass! Use your Sharp Shot!" - Erika shouted.

Now the poor medabot had to face a dilemma: should she listen to her medafighter or should she wait for the program to create a strategy? If she didn't obey Erika's command, it'd look suspicious, but if she obeyed, she couldn't know if it would work for sure. What was she supposed to do?

" _Verifying suggestion... Strategy plausible. Generating simulation... Further analysis results: 50% win chance as the best outcome possible._ " The program suddenly warned.

The female medabot lifted her arm and channeled her attack as well. Everyone was watching excitedly. That was a bet on power and speed: whoever shot effectively first would be victorious. Time seemed to have slowed down, a person could be able to listen to their own heartbeat muffling the sound from everyone cheering and shouting, everything seemed to be passing by in slow motion. The anxiety could be felt more than ever.

Then it finally happened: the loud sound of the Sharp Shot colliding with Roks' head and an explosion from the impact filled the environment. The silver and purple medabot stumbled a few feet backward before falling to his knees then at last dropping to the ground, ejecting his medal.

"Function ceased! The winner is Brass!" - Mr. Referee announced and the whole audience cheered.

But his words didn't seem to hit Erika and Brass. They were so shocked.

"We... We won?" - the medabot asked while she looked at the gun on her arm.

"We won!" - Erika jumped after it finally sank in.

The girl ran to her medabot and kneeled beside her while hugging her.

"We defeated them, Erika!" - the SLR-type couldn't believe it.

"Yeah. We did it, Brass." - the medafighter was so proud of her Last Sailor!

The two let go of each other and looked at Zuru that was walking to pick his medabot's medal up. He stared at them for a moment while he placed the medal on the KWG-type's hatch. Roks came back to his senses and slowly sit up while rubbing his head.

"Well, that hurt a lot." - he said.

Brass blinked at that.

"Sorry..." - she sweatdropped awkwardly. Oops!

"You girls did a fine job in the battle." - Zuru complimented her - "This was a great fight."

"Thank you, Zuru." - Erika said while the SLR-type bowed.

* * *

 

"You did it!" - Ikki shouted at them excited when they returned to the room the participants shared.

"You were awesome, girls." - Metabee said.

"Thanks, guys. I'm still accepting that we won." - Erika confessed.

"Yeah. It's hard to believe we pulled that off." - Brass said.

" _For the next battle: Arc-Dash versus Peppercat!_ " - Mr. Referee's voice announced from the TV.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" - a really loud shout was heard by the whole room.

It was Arc-Dash.

"Pull yourself together, Arc-Dash." - Ginkai told the red medabot.

"B-But... I can't fight my love!" - he objected and his medafighter facepalmed.

But then the boy had an idea.

"You can't facilitate, Arc-Dash." - he started - "If you do, Peppercat will feel insulted. She'll assume you think she's not good enough to beat you."

"Oh, you... You're right! But I can't hurt her!"

"You can't take it too easy on her either."

"Then what do I do?"

"Fight like you would in any other battle." - Ginkai then turned to head to the stadium - "Let's go."

Both ran to the arena, Arc-Dash looked quite unsure, though. The group of four watched as both passed by them.

"Good luck, Arc-Dash! You'll need it!" - Metabee teased him - "Hehe. I wanna see what he's gonna do." - he crossed his arms.

"Erika, let's watch the match!" - Ikki said and both walked away.

The yellow medabot was going to follow them until he noticed Brass wasn't coming.

"Something wrong?" - he asked.

"No. I mean... I'm just thinking..." - she replied.

"About what?"

"What if we have to fight each other?"

Oh... He hadn't thought about that.

"I don't know... I guess we fight normally." - he shrugged.

Brass just lowered her head in thought. He saw that and figured he might have made her upset.

"Hey, look." - he called her - "Let's not take a battle like that personally, okay?" - he told her - "You know I'd never hurt you and neither would you hurt me, right?"

"Well, of course..."

"Then there's nothing to be worried about." - he nudged her - "Just do your best."

"Yeah, you're right." - she took his hand and shook it - "I'll give you a worthy fight if we eventually have to face each other. That's a promise."

"That's the spirit." - he patted her on the back.

" _Arc-Dash is getting beaten very hard in this battle!_ " - Mr. Referee's voice said through the TV, drawing the attention of the two medabots.

They saw the red male medabot being kicked, punched and electrocuted mercilessly by the cat medabot while he was doing almost nothing to fight back. They could also see his medafighter yelling at him for being a coward and for going way too easy.

"I knew Romeo there wouldn't stand a chance in those conditions." - Metabee spoke.

"Poor, Arc-Dash." - Brass commented.

"See? That's why we shouldn't take an eventual battle between us as something personal." - he gestured to the TV screen.

"You don't even have to illustrate your point." - she replied - "That battle is even painful to watch. I don't want this to happen to our fight."

The KBT-type nodded in agreement. Neither did he want that.

* * *

 

Later that day, Ikki, Erika, Metabee, and Brass gathered at Miss Nae's place. The young woman and Honey were working on a few medaparts for an errand and Henry was just relaxing a bit after closing the store he works at. The kids spoke about the battles they had seen and faced.

"So you defeated a Warbandit, Metabee?" - the young man asked.

"Yep. He definitely wasn't like Victor's Warbandit, though." - the yellow medabot said.

"That's true. Victor is much tougher than that. And so is Warbandit." - Ikki commented.

They kept talking about how good Victor was, the fact that they lost to him in their arranged final battle and Metabee's wish of being able to face him again. Brass took the opportunity to "go for a walk" alone.

The Last Sailor ran quickly on the street, she looked like she was in a hurry. And indeed she was. After running for a while she made it to the same place she had met the mysterious man last time, and he was already there, sitting on the bench.

"Oh, hello there, little medabot. How have you been?" - he asked.

"I've felt great! This upgrade really helped me out! I can't believe I defeated such a strong fighter like Roks!" - she was really excited - "Well, I mean, it was the program that did all that. How? How did you have the idea to create it?

"Well, the program doesn't really do much, all it does is boost your ability to think, only using what your medaparts provide to it." - he explained - "You see, your head part is an extremely good and precise scanner. Due to that fact, the program can get a lot of data and raise the speed in which your 'brain' analyses a situation and works on a strategy." - he told her - "So it wasn't the program that defeated Roks, it was you." - he pointed to her.

That encouragement speech boosted her self-confidence a lot. She smiled gratefully.

"Thank you, mister." - she bowed.

"What are we waiting for? Let's get you updated!" - he said, then he pulled out another yellow cube from his pocket - "Hold it in your hand until all the information in it is transferred to your databanks."

"Right." - she picked up the cube.

A flux of yellow static came from the device and traveled by Brass' whole body. Her eyes shone in a yellow light with blue writings running by them really fast, showing the data being sent to her. After a few seconds, the cube's light faded: the process had been completed.

"Wonderful!" - he cheered - "Now go test these updates in tomorrow's team tag battles. You'll face Sumilidon and Neutranurse there. I'll be watching you and I'll be always giving you support from the sidelines."

"Thank you, mister." - she said, then she realized - "Wait... How do you know it's them? Nobody is told who'll face who, the matches are randomly chosen by a computer."

"Well, I am betting on it. There's a 50% chance it'll be them. Better hope I'm right."

"I guess that makes sense." - she shrugged uncertainly - "Goodbye, mister!" - she waved, turned around and ran back from where she had come from.

" _She's quite a catch, huh, boss?_ " - one of the machine's servants spoke through a communicator.

"Quiet! She's not a toy! She's an important test subject, so don't even think of scratching her! Or I'll rip your circuits apart!"

" _Hey, hey, calm down! I was just saying. No need to get all worked up._ "

"I spent years creating this plan. I won't let your foolish acts ruin it." - the machine said harshly - "It's time to get back to the lab." - it got up from the bench and disappeared in the night.

* * *

 

In the next day, the semi-finals of the Team Tag Battle mode took place.

"Today's first match will be Team Kabuto versus Team Rosewood!" - Mr. Referee announced.

Both teams went to their places. Brass noticed the mysterious man was in the audience giving her thumbs up and waving a small bag of money around. ' _You were right, mister._ ' She thought.

"Medafighters ready? Robattle!" - the referee swung his arm downwards.

"Attack!" - Ikki and Erika shouted in unison.

"Defensive positions, then retaliate!" - Kouji ordered.

Neutranurse jumped on Sumilidon's back and held the blue metallic pieces on his head for support. The STG-type medabot's head part deflected all the shots coming from Metabee and Brass.

"Metabee, let's try some close combat!" - Ikki shouted.

The KBT-type charged at the duo, but before he could punch Kouji's medabot, Neutranurse created her defensive wall, preventing him from attacking.

"What?" - he yelled, then he got thrown backward by his opponent.

Both kids gasped and sweat dropped nervously. Tension consumed them.

"We can't scratch them at all! They're completely protected!" - Erika said.

"Don't give up, we'll think of something." - the boy spoke.

Kouji had created a strategy just for them. Sumilidon could run around and strike their medabots for as long as he wanted. And he did just that.

" _Right arm: function ceased._ " - Erika's medawatch warned.

" _Left arm at 60%._ " - Ikki's did as well.

The STG-type just attacked mercilessly, hitting several times very effectively.

The program on Brass kept trying to calculate a strategy, but it was hard to find a way to break through that defense. Until it finally found out what to do after a few minutes.

" _Creating simulation._ " The program warned, then it showed a simulation that involved Metabee cooperating as well. How could she tell she suddenly had an idea like that? It wasn't something one would notice so quickly! She had to hint at the strategy in a way it'd make their medafighters figure it out on their own.

Sumilidon ran past them once more and Brass punched the force field Neutranurse made.

"That shield... It's an impenetrable wall, nothing can go through it." - she said.

"Wait a minute, that's it!" - Ikki got the hint - "If nothing can go through it, that means the shield can't be created if there's something on its way either! Neutranurse has to deactivate the shield so Sumilidon can attack, then she casts it again when he runs back!" - he explained - "Metabee, grab Sumilidon when he comes at you!"

"Brass, use your scanners to track him, so you can help Metabee to act in the perfect moment!" - Erika ordered.

"Right!" - both medabots replied.

The SLR-type scanned the area for a few seconds until she managed to track the STG-type's trajectory accurately.

"Metabee, now!" - she warned.

The KBT-type waited for Sumilidon's arm to come at him then he grabbed it and didn't let go. That moment gave enough time for Brass to jump over the yellow and blue medabot to attack Neutranurse.

"Nothing personal, girlfriend, but you're going down!" - she shouted then she kicked the pink and white medabot on the chest part, throwing her a few feet away from them.

Before the NAS-type could even get up, Brass channeled her Sharp Shot and hit her in the head, right between the eyes. The healer's medal was ejected. Now they only had to deal with Sumilidon.

Well, that wasn't going to take too long.

Metabee stood behind the STG-type and held him by the chest, then he bent his torso backward and made the melee medabot hit his head really hard on the ground. Brass took the chance to channel another Sharp Shot hitting his head a second time, making him eject his medal as well.

"Function ceased! The winner is Team Kabuto!" - Mr. Referee announced.

The two kids jumped and high-fived, while their medabots shook hands, complimenting each other for the good teamwork.

* * *

 

"You should have seen Kouji's face. He was so full of himself when we first saw each other in the tournament, now he's all embarrassed." - Ikki commented to Henry later at the workshop.

"How can you say he was full of himself when you're such a showoff yourself, Ikki? You have no right to judge him." - Erika pointed out, making him blush because she had said that in front of Miss Nae.

"Hey!" - he snapped at her awkwardly - "What about you, saying you're the best photographer and all, but Brass takes much better pictures than you do!"

At that, she gasped.

"How dare you say I don't take good pictures?!" - she yelled at him.

The two kids entered an argument about a silly competition between them, while the young adults, Honey and Metabee sweatdropped. In the middle of that quarrel, nobody noticed Brass sneaking past them and leaving the workshop.

"That was some fine teamwork back there." - the man said to her when she arrived at the location they used to meet each other.

"Thank you, mister." - she spoke - "You were right about Sumilidon and Neutranurse."

"Yeah, I got myself some money." - he laughed a bit - "Today I don't have any updates. I'm focusing on preparing the one that'll help you in the finals."

"How can you be so sure that I'll be in the finals?"

"You're already going for the finals of the Team Tag Battle Mode, why wouldn't you be in the Solo Mode finals as well? Have you noticed you've faced the toughest opponents of the whole tournament so far?" - he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Team Sky, for example, was one of the toughest teams and it was the team made to counter yours as well." - he explained - "You've also faced a huge variety of opponents in the Solo Mode, no medabot was similar, every single time you faced someone you had to create a completely different strategy for each battle."

"Now that you mentioned it, I realized I've been through a lot. I can't believe I've made it this far."

"You need to have more confidence in yourself, little medabot." - he said - "You are a worthy fighter. You just have to believe you can do it, then everything will be easier. That yellow friend of yours does exactly this, that's why he's so good at robattling."

"Metabee?"

"Yes. I can see you want to be like him."

"I guess so."

"You worship him like a god."

"Wait, what?" - her cheeks grew rosy - "Of course not! It's nothing like that!" - she poked her forefingers against each other as she looked away blushing.

"Hehe, I'm just messing with you. Trying to break the ice." - he patted her head.

She smiled at him.

"Oh, I have something here for you. It's not an update, but it's a boost that'll help make the program do its job faster." - he said as he pulled a gray cube from his pocket.

The female medabot held it and absorbed the data from it.

"Wow, I suddenly feel so full of energy!" - she said.

"That's good since it's exactly how you should feel after drinking an energy drink, which was pretty much what you just did." - he explained - "Now you better go home and rest for tonight. Come to me before the finals so I can give you the update."

"Alright, mister, thank you." - she said and left.

* * *

 

Two days had passed and the mysterious man was right: Brass won the two battles she needed to win to get to the finals. But she was unsure about the last battle. What she had feared earlier was going to happen: she was going to face Metabee.

The night before the big day she ran to meet the man.

"You came early, I didn't even have to wait. What's the rush?" - he asked.

"I have to face Metabee!" - she was nervous.

"Okay, don't panic."

"I had promised him I wasn't going to turn this battle into something like Arc-Dash and Peppercat's duel, but I can't stop myself from being nervous!" - she spoke really fast, she was getting more and more agitated.

"Hey, calm down. Take a deep breath." - he held her shoulders firmly as she "breathed" and finally calmed down - "There you go. Now, what did happen that ended up with you making that promise?"

"I spoke to him about an eventual battle between us and he told me that I shouldn't take the fight as something personal."

"And that's exactly what you'll do. Don't worry, if he told you that, I'm sure he'll go easy on you until you feel comfortable enough." - he said - "He's got a gentle heart."

At that, she blinked. It was true. Metabee had always been nice to her, he'd not hurt her now, he himself said he'd never do that.

"You're... Right..." - she told him.

"Now it's time for your update." - he picked another yellow cube up.

"Wait, I don't want to have an update for my match against Metabee."

"But you have to."

"Why? Is it really a problem? I don't want to have a huge advantage over him. I want this to be a good and fair battle."

"You'll need an update for the Team Tag Battle Mode as well, but data for both are in this cube, there's nothing I can do. Either you take it and help Team Kabuto win, or you don't. The choice is yours."

Woah, what was that? He had never spoken so seriously to her. Maybe that was a really tough battle and she herself wouldn't be able to win. She had no other choice: she took the cube in her hand and absorbed all the data from it. Her eyes shone in yellow light again as the yellow static ran by her body. That was a big update!

"Now you're good to go." - he said - "Good luck tomorrow. That was my last update."

"Wait, what do you mean 'that was your last update'? Won't you talk to me again?"

"I'm afraid we won't be seeing each other again so soon. Tomorrow is my last day here. I'll finally go back home after such a long time."

"Oh... I understand." - she lowered her head - "Well, goodbye, then, mister. Thank you so much for all your help."

"It's nothing. I hope you'll win tomorrow. Goodbye, little medabot." - he stood up and left.

Brass watched as he disappeared in the distance, then she walked back to the workshop.

* * *

 

At last, the big day came: the finals of the Solo Mode and the Team Tag Battle Mode were taking place. The first battle was the duo versus duo one, with Team Kabuto versus Team Aqua, a team composed by an Orkamar and a Sharkkan.

They had to flip a coin to choose the battlefield.

"Heads!" - Ikki called.

"Tails!" - the opponent shouted.

Tails. The opposing team chose the aquatic battlefield that had a few platforms for the medabots to stand on.

"Medafighters ready? Robattle!" - Mr. Referee started the fight.

The KIL-type started off throwing multiple shock waves at the two shooting medabots. The two managed to evade, but they didn't have time to react to the Tsunami the two aquatic opponents created, so they were pushed to the pool by the tidal wave.

As they sank in the water, two torpedoes from Sharkkan came at their direction, exploding upon contact. The explosion was so strong that it sent them flying out of the water. Luckily, they fell on a platform, so they could still battle.

"That was really fast!" - Ikki was impressed.

"What do we do now? They'll keep doing this until our medabots cease to function!" - Erika said.

"I know! I'm thinking!" - he shouted back at her.

The aquatic medabots attacked once more. Several shock waves flew towards Team Kabuto and both dodged them all, only to be met with another tidal wave. But this time, Brass had a plan: she shot five times at the ground, then she thrust her left hand's fingers on the holes she made.

"Give me your hand!" - she told Metabee.

He didn't quite understand, but he did that anyway. When the huge tsunami stroke at them, the water tried to push them off the platform once again, but Brass kept a strong grip on the ground and on Metabee, preventing both from being thrown to the water by the wave.

When all the fury of the water stopped, Brass used her left arm that was stuck on the ground to charge her Sharp Shot: she hit Sharkkan square on the head, ceasing his function.

"Now, Metabee!" - she shouted then, with all her might, she gave him enough impulse to jump and fire his missiles at Orkamar, ceasing the KIL-type's function as well.

"Function ceased! The winner of the Team Tag Battle Mode is Team Kabuto!" - Mr. Referee announced excitedly.

Ikki and Erika stared with shocked faces. That was a really quick victory. How... Just how? Brass noticed the last update made the program create a strategy incredibly fast. That was great and all, but she hoped it wouldn't spoil her battle against Metabee.

"Okay, everyone! We'll have a quick pause then we'll be back with the final battle of the Solo Mode!" - Mr. Referee informed.

Team Kabuto went to the room the participants shared.

"Well, I guess that's it. It has been good battling alongside you guys." - Erika said.

"Yeah... Let's give them a show now. We are the best fighters of the tournament, after all, they're expecting it from us." - Ikki spoke.

The medabots shook hands once again.

"Let's do our best. Good luck there." - Metabee said.

"Right! You too." - Brass nodded.

After those friendly gestures, they headed back to the arena. Erika and Brass stood by one side of the battlefield while Ikki and Metabee stood by the other. Mr. Referee walked to the middle of the arena.

"What do we have here? The two winners from the Team Tag Battle Mode are also the finalists of the Solo Mode! They are indeed the best fighters of the Tournament!" - he shouted, making the whole audience cheer - "Now let's find out who's the best of the best! Medafighters ready? Robattle!" - he swung his arm downwards.

"Metabee, use Seeker Missiles!" - Ikki ordered.

"What? No!" - the KBT-type shouted.

"Huh? Why not?"

"Take a good look at them. They're nervous!"

"And?"

"I want to have a fair match, not an easy as pie one. I don't want to take advantage of their nervousness and humiliate them." - he explained - "C'mon, don't you want to remember this battle as a good time with our best friends?"

"I... Fine... We'll go easy for now." - the boy decided - "Laser Canons, then."

The yellow male medabot ran towards Brass, aiming his gun at her.

"Better watch out, because I'm gonna shoot!" - he warned, then he shot a few times.

The SLR-type dodged gracefully but didn't attack back. She kept avoiding his attacks, one after the other. After some time, she started feeling more comfortable: it was a friendly match, not a serious one. She finally began retaliating. She shot at him, and he dodged as well. They kept doing that, it was like watching a dance, they had perfect timing.

"Metabee, can't we fight for real now?" - the boy begged.

"Nah. I still don't feel like it." - he shot as he dodged a bullet.

"C'mon! At least hit her!" - the boy was losing his patience.

"Fine, fine..." - the medabot grumbled.

The battle finally began to become a fight. The first attacks hit the medabots, and they started to get weaker and more damaged. The duel grew fierce as both opponents gave their best. They'd shoot and hit successfully, they'd take damage, fall to the ground and get back up for more. They were having so much fun!

But suddenly, Brass felt a weird surge of energy affecting her. Yellow static ran by her body very quickly once, and yellow writings passed by her eyes really fast going upwards, as if her circuits were reading a kind of code. She felt she was losing control of her movements. The fight became more aggressive by her side. She started shooting with more accuracy, hitting specific points that dealt major damage to Metabee.

" _Left arm at 10%._ " - Ikki's medawatch warned.

"Metabee, be careful!" - the boy said.

"Wanna fight dirty, huh? Then let's fight dirty!" - he shouted, thinking it was just a game, a friendly competition.

The KBT-type used his missiles on her. She was sent flying by the explosion, then she hit the ground. She slowly tried to get up, but her chest hurt a lot, so she put a hand on it to ease the pain.

"Hey, are you okay?" - the male medabot asked while holding his weak arm.

At that, Brass' eyes started glowing in a yellow light.

"Yes..." - she said - "In fact, I'm feeling better than ever!" - she turned her head to face him, and her expression creeped him out.

"Brass?" - he was confused by that.

She got up really fast, then charged at him and kicked him in the chest, making him roll on the ground a few feet away from her. Before he could even react, she channeled her Sharp Shot thrice, hitting both his legs and his right arm.

" _Right arm: function ceased. Legs: function ceased._ " - the boy's medawatch warned.

"Metabee!" - he shouted.

"It's okay, Ikki." - the medabot assured his medafighter - "I guess it's game over then. It was a good fight." - he weakly lifted his left arm to her as she approached.

But she ignored his gesture. She just stood in front of him, with her gun aiming at his face. Her eyes still glowing in the yellow light.

"Time to finish you off." - she said.

Metabee blinked. What? Finish him off? He was saddened by that. What was going on with her, she wasn't the Brass he knew anymore.

"Brass! Answer me!" - Erika shouted, but her medabot ignored.

The KBT-type was starting to get suspicious. Something was wrong with her and what was up with the yellow glow in her eyes? Then suddenly, the sound of someone clapping echoed through the whole stadium as everyone went silent.

"Isn't that wonderful? I've never seen such a great robattle." - the mysterious man said as he walked towards the battlefield.

"It's that man that helped us get inside in time for the Team presentation!" - Ikki realized.

"But what's he doing in the arena?" - Erika wondered.

"I have just come to say my final goodbye to my little friend there." - he pointed to Brass - "We have talked quite a few times during the Tournament, I gave her some useful advice."

"Huh? Brass has been talking to you?" - the girl felt a bit hurt by that: Brass had lied to her.

"It's time to go back home now." - the man said - "To the home I have missed so much." - his eyes started to glow in a yellow light as he removed his overcoat.

Everyone gasped.

That wasn't a human! It was a machine! And it looked like a medabot, with the only difference being the fact that it was slightly bigger than one.

"Who... What are you?" - Ikki asked.

"You don't know who I am? I am a medalorian, of course."

Everybody was shocked. A medalorian? Alive? How was that possible? And what did he want? That was just mad...


	6. The Medalorian Rising

"After the medalorian wars were over, I was one of the few that survived." - the medalorian started telling his story.

* * *

 

_A silver machine with yellow eyes walked in the middle of a wasteland filled with the bodies of several medalorians. He proceeded to collect some head parts to work on making the medals to revive his people._

_A long time later he was in a kind of ancient lab, and he had created several medals. However, he saw a huge group of medalorians and humans trying to invade his laboratory._

_"No! I won't let them take my family away from me!" - he yelled._

_He fought as best as he could, but he was soon overwhelmed by the large number of enemies. He was thrown in a dungeon as the humans captured all the medals. He saw them leaving, he saw the medalorians following the humans as if they were their masters._

_"You fools! You're just servants for them! You're slaves! Slaves!" - he yelled while gripping firmly at the bars from his cell - "What have you done to our society?! How can you live under the command of that inferior race?! I won't sit idly by while this happens! You heard me?!" - he kept shouting as everyone disappeared in the distance - "I'll bring the medalorians age back to the world! There's nothing you can do to stop me! Nothing!" - he yelled as loud as he possibly could._

* * *

 

"I spent centuries in that cell, not being able to see the sunlight. Only the darkness and the dirty floor and walls made me company." - he told everyone, and they all had saddened looks on their faces - "Until something set me free."

* * *

 

_Voices and shouts echoed through the place, as he rested sitting in a corner of his cell. He woke up to steps of a group of individuals running in a corridor beyond one of the walls of the cell. He saw some light coming from a hole on the wall, next to the floor. That was odd, that place should be dark, what was going on?_

_He laid on the ground and peered through the hole. His eyes were wide open at what he saw. More humans and medalorians! Or so he thought they were medalorians. He had heard one of the kids call his similar "medabot". They seemed to be looking for someone, that was also a "medabot"._

_He heard some commotion happening in that corridor. One of the medabots was battling another. A while later he heard the laugh of an old man and the desperate shouts of a boy slamming something into what sounded like glass. Then he heard the noise of glass breaking and steps of people running. He suddenly felt a tremor on the ground: the place was falling apart!_

_"Let me out of here!" - he yelled while gripping at the bars on his cell and trying to pull them off - "You're all going to pay for leaving me in here!"_

_Boulders started falling from the ceiling. He ducked and put his arms above his head to protect himself from the impact, but he didn't have to. He looked upwards and noticed the boulder that fell was so big, that one half of it stuck in the bars from his cell, so only the other half of it actually touched the ground. He crawled through the small space he had to move and started climbing the boulder to get to the upper floor. He ran as fast as he could and managed to get out of the falling ruins just in time._

_"At last! I am free!" - he shouted._

_Then he heard a really loud noise and turned around: a huge Megaemperor was causing havoc on a city a bit far from where he was. He looked at the head of the giant medabot for a few seconds and saw there was a short old man controlling the enormous machine._

_"These humans! They have turned my society into toys! Toys they use to please themselves, whether it's by creating chaos or by playing around with those small humans!" - he yelled in rage - "They're all going to pay for that! It's time for my revenge."_

_He turned around and walked away from that scene._

* * *

 

"Wait a second, you were imprisoned in the temple Dr. Meda-Evil used as a lab?" - Ikki asked - "Why didn't you ask for help when we passed by, then?"

"As if I wanted help from an inferior being like you! I'd rather let myself become dust in that dungeon than to do that!" - the machine snapped at him.

"Hey! How can you have such a bad vision about us?" - Erika shouted - "Okay, we do make mistakes, but that's not all we're about. You need to be more open-minded."

"Were you 'open-minded' when you threw me in a dungeon for centuries just because I was protecting my family?!" - he retorted - "You are an inferior race, it's undeniable. You have no place on this planet! It's time to take my home back." - his eyes were glowing more intensely.

Suddenly, several medabots started acting strangely: their eyes glowed in a yellow light as well. Even Metabee felt a strange surge of energy flowing through him, but he wasn't completely affected because his medal was a rare one.

"Those who oppose me will die. If you're a medalorian, a traitor, you'll perish with the humans." - the machine said.

The controlled medabots started rampaging: they attacked everyone in their way. Soon they opened holes in the walls and started marching through the city, killing everyone who crossed their path. The machine jumped really high and landed on the roof: he was going to lead the army.

"We have to stop them!" - Ikki said.

"Brass! What's wrong with you?!" - Erika shouted to her best friend, but the medabot ignored. She started running towards her, but the SLR-type aimed her gun at her.

"Don't move, human." - she warned.

The girl fell to her knees, tears falling down her cheeks. Where was the Brass she knew and loved? The female medabot was still aiming her gun at Metabee. Her expression was so cold... It was like she didn't have a soul anymore.

"Brass..." - Metabee sighed - "That monster... What did he do to you?"

He tried to get up, but his body was way too damaged. Still, he didn't give up. In fact, he did something extraordinary: he slowly threw himself forward, so he'd be facing the ground, then he pushed himself upwards with his functioning arm. Finally, with all his strength, he threw his body's weight forward once more and grabbed Brass.

At that, she shot, hitting him square in the chest. He yelled in pain but didn't let go of her.

"Brass! Argh... Snap out of it!" - he shouted, but he was trembling from that wound. It was really severe and he'd need to be repaired soon. His tinpet was compromised and he'd probably have to replace his whole body.

"Metabee!" - Ikki yelled.

"C'mon... Brass..." - Metabee said weakly - "I know you remember who I am... I fought for you once, long ago."

That triggered a memory, making the Last Sailor freeze, so she was no longer struggling. ' _Make us proud, Kyuumo, make us proud._ ' Her own speech echoed in her mind.

"And I'm fighting for you now too! You'll make it!" - he said.

More memories were triggered. All the battles in which they had fought as a team played in her mind really fast. But at the same time it seemed she was going to come to her senses, the program released a surge of energy inside her. Yellow static flowed by her body as she pushed Metabee to the ground.

She moaned and winced, holding her head. She was in a lot of pain.

"Don't give up, Brass! We're all here for you!" - Metabee shouted.

"Brass, it's me, Erika! Please, come back to me!" - the girl said.

The SLR-type struggled. The pain was insanely unbearable. She couldn't take it for too long. She slowly came to her senses for a short period of time.

"E...riiii...kaa! Me..taa...beeeeee...!" - her voice sounded completely modified, she was fighting against the indoctrination, however, it was very hard.

But then, she did the unexpected: she aimed her guns at her own head and channeled a Sharp Shot against herself.

"Brass!" - Metabee and Erika yelled in unison as they saw the scene playing almost in slow motion.

The Last Sailor's head spun vertically in such an angle that it was painful to watch. Several pieces of it flew in all directions, it was like the head was disintegrating. The medabot fell lifeless on the floor.

Metabee reached an arm out for her as his vision started to become black. He saw Erika rushing to her medabot's body as he fainted. The noises he heard no longer made any sense to him as he was swallowed by the darkness.

* * *

 

"Sir, most of the medabots of the city are under your command. We're also converting more medabots into allies as we take over the town." - the camera bot flew by its master.

"Good. Let's keep the pressure." - the medalorian said - "Today, brothers and sisters, will take our world back! The humans enslaved us with no regret, let's show them no mercy!"

The rampaging medabots became even more aggressive. They opened holes in the buildings and killed all the people inside. Screams, cries, people running, then getting shot and murdered was becoming a common pattern.

"Sumilidon!" - Kouji shouted at his medabot, but the STG-type was already being controlled.

"Neutranurse..." - Karin was saddened after seeing her medabot was no longer herself.

The two kids were cornered by the two medabots. The machines seemed to be angry. The boy was in front of the girl protectively. The medabots moved to attack and the kids tried to protect themselves, but the attack never came to them.

"Rokusho!" - Kouji was surprised.

"You two, get to safety." - the KWG-type said while he blocked Sumilidon's attack with one of his arms - "I'll hold them off."

"Please, be careful." - Karin said as the boy dragged her away.

The silver and purple medabot pushed the STG-type on the NAS-type, knocking both down. Then he hit the two a few times so their functions would cease. He collected their medals and jumped on the roof of a building nearby. Two down, more hundreds to go. He was going to have a long day...

* * *

 

Metabee slowly gained consciousness as he opened his eyes and blinked a few times. He noticed he was no longer in the arena, he was in Miss Nae's workshop. He sat up wincing in pain a bit.

"Ugh... What did happen? How did I get here?" - he asked.

"Metabee! I'm glad you're okay." - Ikki hugged his medabot.

"Ouch! Hey, careful, that hurts." - the KBT-type shouted.

"Sorry." - the boy lowered his head - "You and Brass were badly damaged, so we called Miss Nae to help us. She made some emergency procedures in the arena, but she still had to bring you guys here to finish the repairs."

"Where's Brass? Is she okay?"

"Miss Nae is still fixing her, but her injuries aren't nearly as bad as what she suffered once. So she'll be fine." - the kid referred to when Brass' old body was destroyed and her medal was broken into pieces.

Sometime later, the SLR-type woke up as well and she seemed to be alright.

"Brass, how are you feeling?" - Erika asked.

"I'm fine. I just feel horrible because of what happened." - the female medabot replied.

"It's okay. Who'd have guessed that guy was a monster? You have nothing to do with that."

"Actually, that's not true..."

"Huh?"

Everyone then stared at Brass.

"What do you mean?" - Henry asked.

"When that machine said he had been talking to me, he spoke the truth." - she started - "I've been meeting him by the bench on the river near the bridge because..." - her voice trailed off.

"Because?" - Miss Nae insisted for her to go on.

"Because he installed a software on me that was supposed to help me in the Tournament's robattles." - she lowered her head.

"Wait a second, you... You cheated?" - Ikki was surprised.

But Erika was the most hurt by all that. Her medabot had lied to her all the time. She couldn't believe her Brass had done something like that.

"Please... Forgive me, Erika... I just thought I had to get better, to make you proud, but I felt like I had reached my limit, so his help seemed to be the only way to..."

"Brass..." - the girl interrupted her - "I am already proud of you. I'd never trade you for another medabot. But lying to me... How could you...?" - she started crying.

Miss Nae walked to the girl and dragged her away for a while, so she could calm down. The medabot didn't even know how to react, she was so sad.

"I'm sorry..." - she said weakly, trying to hold her own tears back.

"Brass." - Henry called her - "Tell us everything, that's the only way we can figure out what to do to stop this. You'll also have a chance to redeem yourself."

The medabot nodded. Redemption was something she wanted more than anything at that moment. She explained with details how the program worked, the encounters she had with the machine to get more updates, how she felt after each update...

"That's all I can tell." - she finished.

"Hm... This program... I think it had a kind of virus hidden in it." - Henry said.

"A virus? You mean medabots can actually be affected by viruses just like computers do?" - Ikki questioned.

"Exactly." - the young man confirmed - "The virus might have been spread through robattling. Every medabot Brass robattled against was contaminated and they sent the virus to other medabots they fought against as well." - he explained his theory.

"What about Metabee? Why isn't he affected?" - the boy asked.

"I think he was contaminated, but the virus can't change his programming because he has a rare medal." - Henry started - "Remember when Dr. Meda-Evil tried to brainwash all the world's medabots? When you entered their dream, you managed to make Metabee and the other medabots to snap out of it. I can only say that at that moment, the medabots made a choice: they wanted to live alongside humans, not conquer the world."

"Wait, I think I get what you mean. When they made that choice, they were becoming independent. So they can't be affected by an indoctrination again!" - Ikki realized - "But maybe the clone medals aren't able to do that because they're not original medalorians!"

"Precisely."

"Hey, but, what about Brass? She managed to get rid of that brainwashing process." - Metabee commented.

"That's true... I wonder if that was because her medal has been broken. Perhaps that virus couldn't install itself properly on it because the medal wasn't intact. I wish we could examine her medal, but last time we tried to run a scanner on it, the results said the information couldn't be analyzed and that there was encrypted data that couldn't be reached... Ever..."

"You're full of surprises, huh?" - the KBT-type said to her, making her blush of awkwardness.

"I can feel a faint pulse coming from that tower." - she pointed through a window.

"A tower that sends cell phone signals. That guy's smart." - Ikki spoke.

"Maybe if you deactivate the tower, the rampant medabots will stop." - Henry told them.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go there." - Erika said.

She had come back and had listened to their conversation for quite a while.

"Erika... Are you still... Mad at me?" - her medabot asked while lowering her head.

"Yes..." - the girl replied - "But you are and will always be my best friend, no matter what. I'll help you out. Besides, I've made mistakes too and you forgave me. So I forgive you as well." - she hugged the SLR-type - "Never do that again, Brass."

"I won't. That's a promise. I have learned my lesson." - she hugged her medafighter back.

"Now wait. You two have taken a lot of damage if you over..." - Miss Nae tried to make them see reason.

"I can't sit here and do nothing when all of this is my fault, Miss Nae!" - Brass interrupted her.

"And I'll help as well." - Metabee said while pointing a thumb to himself - "I won't let you do this alone." - he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Arcbeetle and I will go with you." - Henry offered.

"Let's go, guys!" - Ikki called and all ran out of the workshop.

Miss Nae and Honey watched as they disappeared in the distance.

"Please, be safe." - the young human prayed.

* * *

 

After some time running, the 6 were getting closer to the tower, until they were stopped by a large group of rampant medabots. Henry quickly pulled the kids with him, so they'd all hide behind a wall from an alley.

"They're too many. What do we do?" - Erika asked.

"We have to sneak past them. We need a distraction." - Henry told them.

"I know!" - Metabee suddenly said.

He shot his missiles and they flew far away, until the smoke showing where they had come from disappeared.

"What was that for?" - Ikki was a bit annoyed because it could have alerted the rampant medabots.

"Just wait." - the KBT-type told him.

Then, after a few seconds, the missiles came back and hit the group of medabots. The raging machines were confused for a while until they saw the smoke coming from a direction leading to a place far away, so they followed it.

"I can't believe that worked!" - the boy was surprised.

"See? Totally genius." - Metabee crossed his arms with his eyes closed.

"Great job!" - Brass praised him, and he smiled at her.

They continued their path, observing how destroyed the city had become.

"How did they cause so much havoc that fast?" - Erika was impressed, but not in a good way.

"Don't underestimate the destructive powers of a medabot." - Henry put it simply - "In only ten days they nearly took over the world. And that was when they didn't even have so many advanced bodies. Imagine what they can do now."

The girl just lowered her head in response. She didn't want to think about what could happen. All she wanted to do was to put an end to that as soon as possible.

Suddenly they found more three medabots on the way.

"Looks like we won't be able to sneak past them. I'm pretty sure they've already noticed us." - Henry said.

"Yeah, they keep staring, but they're not moving. How can we know if they're hostile or not?" - Ikki asked.

"It doesn't really matter. If we try to find out and they end up being enemies, we'll die because we let our guard down." - the young man explained - "Arcbeetle and I will hold them off while you run to the tower."

Both the man and his red medabot ran in a different direction. Arcbeetle channeled his prominence and shot a large beam of light at the creepy medabots. They immediately chased the duo.

"That's our chance. Let's move." - Erika called and the four went ahead.

A while later they finally made it to the tower. They looked around to see if there were any rampant medabots around: nothing. They walked towards the entrance, but quickly froze at the sight: two medabots were guarding their only way in.

"He has security officers. He won't go down so easily." - Brass said.

"Oh, c'mon! How can he always be 2 steps ahead of us?" - Metabee was annoyed.

"That's it!" - Ikki said all of a sudden - "He expects us to defeat those medabots so he'll know we're here! But we can play his game too. We won't do what he thinks we'll do."

"Then how are we supposed to get inside?" - Erika asked skeptically.

The boy just smiled: he had a plan.

* * *

 

Brass walked calmly towards the two guards. They didn't show any sign that they were going to attack, in fact, they thought she was one of their own.

"There's some suspicious activity nearby. I need you two to come with me to check that out." - she said with a serious tone.

The two medabots looked at each other, then shrugged and followed her. She led them to an abandoned junkyard. The three walked for a while in there.

"Here's where I spotted something amiss. Don't let your guard down." - she told them.

Suddenly, a huge magnet lifted by a hoist flew by the three.

"Look out!" - Brass warned, but she did so way too late, so the guards wouldn't have time to escape.

The two were pulled by the magnet and got stuck on it. Luckily, Brass managed to avoid being pulled as well because she grabbed a piece of pipe that was strongly stuck on the ground. The guard medabots struggled to get free, but it was in vain.

"Don't waste your strength, I'll go find a way to get you out of there." - she said, so they just stopped moving.

The SLR-type ran out of the junkyard to meet the others.

"Haha, they fell for it!" - Ikki said.

The kids and their medabots ran for the tower again. When they arrived there, they had a surprise: the tower was in flames!

"What did happen?" - Erika asked.

"I-I don't know! Why'd the medabots attack the tower?" - Brass wondered.

Then, they hid behind some rubble from a building when they saw a few rampant medabots running nearby.

"What are they doing? Huh?" - Ikki saw something - "Hey, look! There's a medabot flying up there! But it seems he's trying to get away from them. Maybe he's not indoctrinated."

They observed as the flying medabot flew far away, making lots of rampant medabots follow him, shooting missiles, bombs and everything else they could at him.

"I hope he'll make it. Things don't look good for him." - Metabee said with a frown.

"Then let's not waste time. We can save him if we deactivate the tower." - the girl told him.

They all quickly entered the building.

* * *

 

Ginkai, Zuru, Arc-Dash, Roks, Samantha and the Screws, Kam and Blakbeetle were running, trying to find a place to hide. They spotted some medabots blocking what looked like a good hideout.

"What now?" - Samantha asked.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else." - Sloan suggested.

"No..." - Arc-Dash said - "I'm tired of running away. I'll make them pay for what happened to Peppercat." - rage could be noted in his voice.

"Arc-Dash..." - Ginkai was surprised by his medabot's reaction, Samantha actually felt glad that someone else wanted to do something about her medabot.

"I'll fight with you." - Roks said - "I'll punish them for what happened to Tyrelbeetle."

"Blakbeetle and I will help." - Kam offered.

The two medabots and the kilobot charged at the group of medabots. The fight was brutal. Medaparts were ripped off from the rampant medabots' bodies and thrown away as the rage consumed the three fighters. They were so aggressive. A very thin line separated them from the rampant ones. At last, they had defeated all of the medabots and the kids could get to safety. The children just hoped their medabots wouldn't turn into monsters...

* * *

 

Metabee and Brass ran in a corridor on fire, dodging the falling cracked pieces of the ceiling, with Ikki and Erika right behind them. Suddenly, the ground gave up in front of the group.

"What do we do now?" - the girl asked.

"We'll keep going to the control room. You two better get out of here before the smoke poisons you." - the yellow medabot said as he jumped and landed on the other side, then turned around to wait for the SLR-type.

She jumped as well and landed on the other side, but she lost balance, so Metabee grabbed her arm to prevent her from falling.

"Let's go, then." - Brass said while he nodded and both ran.

They didn't take too long to find the control room, but the door was stuck. The KBT-type charged at the door, but the door didn't move. He couldn't blow it up either, because the room would collapse. Brass used her scanner to find weak points on the door. She shot at its joints and Metabee charged, taking the door down.

"Nice one." - he said and she smiled.

They entered the room and observed. There was a huge machine in front of them, with a large wire covered in electricity passing through the ceiling and going to the antennae on the roof. There was a console on the machine's base. They ran to it and Metabee started looking for a way to stop the virus.

Brass noticed there was a kind of CD driver looking device that was meant for medals instead of CDs right beside the console. And it gave her an idea: if she got rid of the virus, then she had the cure in her!

"Quick, insert my medal there!" - she said, pointing to the device.

"Huh?" - the yellow medabot didn't understand - "Why?"

"You helped me to get free from the virus, that means my medal contains the cure!" - she told him while using the console - "I'm programming the antennae to send the content of my medal to all the infected medabots."

Metabee was about to agree when it finally hit him.

"Wait... If you do that, you won't just spread the cure, you'll spread yourself too!" - he said worriedly.

"There's a chance that might happen, but this is our only solution." - she explained. - "We have to do it."

"What?!" - he said, and Brass noticed he was a bit angry - "I'm not going to let you destroy yourself!"

"Metabee, we can't give up on all the medabots!" - she frowned.

"I'm not going to give up on you either!" - he shouted while holding her shoulders tightly - "We can find another way."

"There's no other way. If we don't do it now, the war will spread far from the range of the antennae and we won't be able to cure them all!" - she clasped her hands together trying to convince him.

"Well, I don't care!" - he said a bit harshly, which made her feel saddened - "I'll put them down by myself if need be."

"What do you mean 'you don't care'?" - she was not understanding - "You're not being serious, are you? We have to help the others, Metabee!" - she pointed out.

"I-I know, but..." - he lowered his head.

"That's just not you at all! What's going on with you?" - she shook her head.

Those words hit him very hard and deep inside. He knew she spoke the truth. But it was just way too hard to accept the plan would go that way, so he finally snapped.

"I don't want to lose you!" - he squeezed her shoulders tighter and briefly shook her while staring intensely into her eyes, as if he was trying to make his thoughts get through her head without the need of too many words. He stared at the ground and went silent.

He couldn't let that happen again. That was too much. He wasn't strong enough to go through that once more. The female medabot blinked and froze. Then she smiled warmly.

"Metabee..." - she gently placed her fingers under his chin to slowly lift his head, making him look at her eyes again - "I really don't want to lose you either. But that's a risk I'm willing to take." - she said solemnly, but softly - "It was all my fault, I've made a huge mistake, and I'll sacrifice myself to fix it if need be."

She suddenly hugged him tightly, almost as if it was going to be the last time she would be able to do that. Metabee's eyes were wide open. He returned the embrace even tighter and struggled to let go. Brass gave him one last deep stare and then nodded softly, letting him know she was ready.

She ejected her own medal and he carefully held it and walked to the CD driver looking device. He looked at her medal in thought again, resisting the urge to run away with it. With his trembling hands, he placed her medal on the device, then started the command Brass had prepared before.

Sparks were coming from down below and were running towards the roof, Metabee figured it was working. He walked to the SLR-type's lifeless body and held its hand, as a way to comfort himself.

"Brass... Please, don't leave..." - he pleaded while staring at the static on the large wires. All he could do now was to hope she would still be there after that.

* * *

 

Outside of the tower, a huge green pulse came from it, covering a large radius in the sky. More pulses came after that one. The rampant medabots suddenly started to stop working, their functions were ceasing.

"What's going on?" - the camera bot asked as it saw many medabots fall to the ground.

The medalorian growled in anger: he knew what was happening.

"Make sure the working medabots don't stop what they're doing. I'll go get rid of this small issue." - he ordered, then he leaped really high from roof to roof, making his way toward the tower.

"C'mon, everyone! Listen! It's time to wreck more havoc! So quit being lazy!" - the camera bot yelled and the working medabots kept destroying stuff.

* * *

 

Metabee just watched the static running on the pipe. His eyes had a sad look, but he still had hope. He tightened his grip on Brass' body's hand. She'd make it. She had to, for Erika, for... For him.

"You!" - a voice yelled.

The KBT-type turned around to see a silver machine with yellow eyes standing by the door. He was staring madly at him.

"You're trying to ruin my plans! You traitor!" - he yelled more - "I shall show you all the pain your kind made me suffer."

"And I'm gonna kick your butt for what you did to Brass!" - Metabee shouted back.

The two charged and punched each other in the face, but the medalorian was much stronger physically. Metabee felt much more the impact of the punch he took, while the silver machine barely flinched.

The yellow medabot jumped and kicked the silver medalorian, but he defended himself, then punched Metabee in the area that'd be his "stomach". The KBT-type kneeled on the ground in pain, his chest was already hurt, that guy had just hit his wound again. Then before he could react, the medalorian kicked his head, sending him flying.

He hit the ground and slid a few feet towards a glass that was protecting a power supply.

"Do you think you can beat me? I am just protecting my society, getting back what was mine once. The ones that do the right thing always win." - the medalorian said.

"You're wrong..." - Metabee said as he sat up, an image of Brass looking at him proudly played in his mind - "You don't want to accept that the world has changed. You want to oblige everyone to live the way you liked to live. You're the one enslaving our people!"

That made the medalorian angrier than he already was.

"You think you're so good, you put yourself as a victim that brings justice." - the KBT-type slowly got up - "Well, news flash, you're no better than the humans that mistreated you!"

The medalorian got so angry he dashed at Metabee with all his rage. The yellow medabot managed to get a grip on both his hands and they had a fight over power. They pushed each other and resisted the pressure for some time. Metabee was getting a bit worn out, though. He hadn't recovered from the severe damage he took when fighting against Brass, so he was struggling a lot, and he couldn't keep up with that for too long.

Soon the silver machine took advantage of that. He twisted his torso and used his momentum to throw Metabee on the ground, then he stepped on his chest, making a lot of pressure with his leg, hurting the medabot even more. Suddenly, he stared at the console. The female medabot! She was in there!

"It's time to end this!" - he charged some energy on one of his hands then he launched a beam of light at the console.

The console exploded immediately, lots of pieces of it flew in every direction and a big amount of smoke filled the environment.

"No!" - Metabee cried while reaching an arm out towards the destroyed console.

The static stopped flowing through the large wire. No sign of the SLR-type's Kabuto medal anywhere. Brass... She was gone... Forever...


	7. Epilogue

Metabee turned his head angrily to face the medalorian stepping on him.

"You..." - he said as the light on his eyes faded - "You..." - he started glowing and his colors changed as well - "You... MONSTER!" - he yelled while shooting beams of white light from his head at the medalorian.

The machine flew and hit the ceiling very hard, then he fell on the ground. He slowly got back up on his feet, while Metabee was already standing.

"You're getting quite fond of the power, aren't you?" - he said - "But I'll tell you something, you're not the only one who has it." - he started glowing as well and his silver color became shinier than before - "I'm sure you have no idea of what this power is." - he laughed a bit - "This is the Meda State, a special state of power augmentation that heals all our wounds and multiplies our power to an infinite amount. If you master it, you can become a God." - he explained - "But this isn't like the Medaforce. Only true medalorians that have reached the maximum level can learn it, not any worthless clone. This does depend on a bond, though, but not any bond, it must be something between medalorians strictly. That's why this power doesn't drain our energy." - he charged a small ball of energy in his hand - "You could surrender, become my pupil, we could rule the world. Or you can say farewell to your existence because you don't stand a chance against me."

"I do have something to say." - Metabee spoke - "Kiss your bot goodbye!" - he yelled.

He launched a really huge beam of white light from all his weapons, while the silver medalorian launched a beam from his energy ball. The two beams collided, generating a lot of wind that threw a lot of dust and some rubble in the air. The silver machine's beam seemed to be getting the upper hand at first, but it didn't last too long, Metabee's beam suddenly grew larger and pushed the opponent's beam back to him, as the KBT-type focused to put more power in his attack.

The yellow-eyed medalorian yelled a he felt his metallic skin being burned and melted up to a certain point. He was pushed really hard against the wall and the intense light damaged him a lot. When the attack finally ceased, the machine just fell limp on the floor.

"H-How...?" - he asked weakly.

"My bond with Brass and my friends is much stronger than your bond with each medalorian from our ancient society combined. That's how." - the golden medabot replied - "This is over."

Their glow faded and their colors came back to normal.

"No, it's not. You have failed." - the silver medalorian said - "Huh?"

Metabee followed his gaze to see something through the window: the green pulse! It was still there! So Brass' plan to cure the medabot was still working! She wasn't gone! He quickly looked around and noticed the part where her medal was stored was still intact! He had no idea of how she managed to maintain the process going with the console destroyed, but she did it.

"Looks like your plan was busted." - Metabee mocked him.

The medalorian just clenched his fist in anger and lowered his head in defeat. There was nothing else he could do. The KBT-type noticed the pulses had finally ended, so he picked Brass's medal up and inserted it on the hatch on her back. He quickly lifted her up and ran out of the building, since it could collapse at any minute.

When they made it out of the building it fell, the rubbles crushing anything that could have been inside at the moment of the fall. That medalorian was no more.

* * *

 

The rampant medabots stopped working, their functions ceased, including the camera bot. Then, they woke up confused. They couldn't remember what had happened.

Kouji and Karin sat in a room worried. They hoped their medabots were going to be alright. Suddenly, they heard someone knocking on the door. When they opened it, they saw it was Rokusho, and he had escorted their medabots back to them!

"Sumilidon!" - the boy shouted happily as he hugged his best friend.

"Neutranurse!" - the girl was so relieved!

* * *

 

Ginkai, Zuru, Kam, Arc-Dash, Roks, Blakbeetle, Samantha and the Screws got out of their hiding place. The sun was shining its light in the ruined city. All of a sudden, the group heard a noise: it was Peppercat, Totalizer, Krosserdog, and Tyrelbeetle!

"Peppercat!" - Samantha ran to hug her medabot with Arc-Dash right behind her to greet his love.

Zuru and Roks reunited with Tyrelbeetle just as fondly. Spike and Sloan were also really happy their best friends were safe and sound, they even shed tears of joy.

* * *

 

Henry and Arcbeetle watched as the medabots came back to normal.

"They did it." - he smiled with relief - "C'mon, Arcbeetle, it's time to help these medabots get back to their medafighters."

The two spoke to the lost medabots, offering to take them to their homes.

* * *

 

Brass woke up at last. She opened her eyes and saw the blue sky. She closed her fingers and felt the soft grass beneath her hand. She saw Metabee sitting next to her, so she lifted her torso.

"Metabee?" - she asked softly - "Did it work?"

The yellow medabot looked at her happily.

"Yes! You did it, Brass!" - Metabee shouted excitedly - "You did it!" - he grabbed her hands, making her look at how happy he was - "You saved the world!" - he couldn't help but feel proud of her.

They stared at each other for some time, while the peace filled their hearts again. The silence was starting to become awkward, so they quickly let go of each other's hands as they looked away blushing a bit.

"Thank you, Metabee. For all your help." - she said.

The two just looked at the city for a moment, until they saw their medafighters running towards them.

"Metabee!" - Ikki shouted.

"Brass!" - Erika jumped with joy.

The two duos hugged each other and exchanged knowing glances. No words needed to be said. They were happy the war was over.

A lot of people learned something that day: acceptance, respect, charity, and selflessness are virtues really important that nobody should ever take for granted. The world was going to be rebuilt. It was going to become a better place where everyone would grow into better people. All thanks to a lesson brought by a misunderstood ancient dictator and the sacrifice and devotion of a Last Sailor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There'll be another sequel called "Repurposed" soon.


End file.
